The Elite
by EllieHathaway
Summary: M to be safe -language- . Rose leaves on a mission given to her by Queen Tatiana after Lissa shouts at her through the bond in SB. Returning five years later as a changed woman, what's going to happen with the new Rose? - Unfortunately, I cannot find the time to complete this story, if anyone wishes to pick it up where I have left off then please message me.
1. Opportunity of a lifetime?

_All rights go to the wonderful Richelle Mead, without whom, none of the VA fanfictions would be possible!  
><em>_Yeah I get it, it's another Rose-leaves-because-Lissa-and-Dimitri-seem-to-want-her-to-go-away-but-she-doesn't-know-that-they-want-her-to-stay story (WOW, that's a mouthful!) but I like reading those stories and seeing how other people play with the characters so I thought why shouldn't I have a go? _

**1.**

**(extract from pages 245/246 of Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead) **

_Rose_, said Lissa through the bond. _Go away now. Leave him alone._

"The hell I will," I said, both answering her aloud and addressing him.

"I just furthered your case."

"We were doing fine without you," said Dimitri stiffly.

"Oh yeah?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You seemed pretty grateful a couple minutes ago when I thought up the idea of you helping us against Strigoi."

Dimitri turned to Lissa. His voice was low, but it carried to me. "I don't want to see her."

"You have to!" I exclaimed. A few of the departing people paused to

see what the racket was about. "You can't ignore me."

"Make her go away," Dimitri growled.

"I'm not-"

_ROSE!_

Lissa shouted in my head, shutting me up. Those piercing jade eyes stared me down. _Do you want to help him or not? Standing here and yelling at him is going to make him even more upset! Is that what you want? Do you want people to see that? See him get mad and yell back at you just so you don't feel invisible? They need to see him calm. They need to see him . . . normal. It's true-you did just help. But if you don't walk away right now, you could ruin everything._

**(end extract)**

'So I don't feel invisible?' I dragged out the last word, my voice low and menacing, pronouncing every syllable. 'Do you realise what you're saying?… Obviously not, so I'll enlighten you. You're the one making me feel invisible, Lissa! Yes, you brought me back after the accident, what have you done since then? Huh?'

'Rose…' I didn't have time to notice that he had just said my name, albeit in a warning tone, but I couldn't think of how the way he said my name did things to my self control. And I needed to be in control right now, or I was going to burst.

'Shut up.' I hissed at him, I could feel something rearing itself inside me, a dark presence lingering over me. 'You have no right to speak to me like that, you aren't my mentor anymore.' I turned back to Lissa. 'I put my life on the line for you every single day, I take away the darkness from your spirit all the fucking time just so you don't have to feel the effects of it, so I can protect you from it. Well, you know what? I'm sorry if I'm feeling a little invisible at the moment, you know, with you going off and getting all up close and personal with the man I love while I'm still dealing with everything that's happened to me in the past year as well as the fact that the man I love doesn't even want to see me anymore! Do you know how much I need a friend right now? I've been talking to Adrian. ADRIAN for Christ's sake. And he's been the one comforting me and telling me it's all going to be okay. I'm talking to Adrian when I need to talk to you, do you know how degrading that makes me feel? I've been there for you all the time, putting your needs before mine even when I feel like the world is treating me like shit and I just want to leave it all behind. Well, guess what, Vasilisa.' Scorn dripped off of her name and she flinched, paling when I said her full name. I didn't dare look at Dimitri, I would lose my train of thought. There was a silence as I stared her down.

'I'm done. I'm done with you, I'm done with this pathetic thing I call my life and I'm done with this whole charade, I'm trying to pretend that there's nothing wrong when really, there are so many screwed up things at the moment that I just want out. You hear me? I'M DONE!'

Faster than I thought possible, Dimitri was in front of me, gripping the top of my arms, his hands like vices.

'This isn't you, Rose. Snap out of it. Listen to yourself, you wouldn't be saying any of this if the darkness wasn't getting to you. Roza, ple-' I wrenched myself out of his grip and pulled at my hair, stepping backwards and away from them both. I saw in Dimitris' eyes that he knew his mistake as soon as he said my name in Russian.

'DON'T YOU DARE. DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE, DIMITRI BELIKOV. I'M DONE. YOU HEAR ME? _DONE!' _I ran past them both, barely noticing the tears on Lissa's face nor the shouts of my name. I knew my destination, and it would help me get out of this world forever. I was going to start a new life away from it all.

* * *

><p>I didn't bother knocking on the door of Tatiana's chambers, I didn't bother acknowledging the shouts of her receptionist.<p>

I threw the door open and marched straight to her desk, she didn't even flinch when the door slammed shut behind me.

'Guardian Hathaway, I was about to ask for your whereabouts. I need to speak to you.' That stopped me in my tracks, she wasn't even going to shout at me for storming in? I kind of hoped that she would, I feel like arguing with everybody right now.

'You were? And you do?' I flopped down in a chair in front of her desk, not bothering to ask if I could.

'I was about to send my receptionist to find you, it wouldn't have been hard, she could have just followed the shouting.' I blinked. She didn't even sound the least bit mad, just her usual state of perpetual bored-ness.

'You heard that?'

'My dear, I think the whole of the Moroi Court heard you.' If I wasn't shocked before, I definitely was now. Queen Bitch just called me dear. Oh god, has someone slipped me some drugs or something? I must be imagining this!

'Right… What did you want to speak about, T- err, your Majesty?' Well… if she was being fairly nice to me, I could return the favour, right?

'It's a rather important mission actually. I need only the best going on this. I've decided that we've skirted around the fact that we should be going after strigoi actively instead of just waiting until they come for us. I want a team of Guardians going after all the hideouts, there should be around fifteen of you going. You can sort out how you go after the strigoi on your own, I know you won't want my interference. Especially you…' She gave me a knowing look that had me finding a sudden interest in the shoes I was wearing today. 'Look, Guardian Hathaway… Rose, I know we've had our differences in the past-'

_Differences? Yeah, I could name a few. More than a few. With Adrian being the topic of 'discussion'. _

'-But I want you to be the one in charge of the guardians going with you. Of course, they will all be older than you, probably, and will be weary of your authority, but I know you can handle them. We're bringing in more guardians from other academies so we won't be down on security whilst you are gone.'

This is it, this is the escape I could get without actually having to quit my job, which is what I was going to do. I was going to take Lissa's words literally. I was going to walk away from this, right away. If I do this then I can't interfere with Dimitri getting his guardian status back, I won't be able to cause anymore disruptions in Lissa's life and Sparky will finally get what he's wanted with me going away. Adrian might want me to stay, along with Mia but I don't think I could bare to see their faces. Or Eddie's… after everything we've been through, he really has become like a brother for me. Maybe without me as a constant reminder then he'll be able to get over Mason's death and find peace with it all. It really seemed like everyone would be able to have a better life without me. Adrian will be able to find someone that could treat him how he should be treated and I won't be a problem anymore if I disappear from their lives.

'Well, I can't say I'm surprised, your Majesty. I came in here to quit my job but, with this offer… How long are we talking about?' The longer the better.

'Until you take out the hideouts that Mr. Belikov-' There goes my heart. 'has informed us of. We would like you to leave the sooner the better. If you would like, I can gather the guardians that would be going with you in the gym on court grounds so you can get to know them a little… that is, if you accept this mission?' I closed my eyes and took a deep, lung-filling breath. Here goes the decision for the rest of my life.

'I accept, you Majesty. Thank you for appointing me for this mission, it is an honour to even have been considered.' Well… I can speak like a sane person when I wanted to.

'No, Guardian Hathaway. Thank _you_. You're doing the Moroi a great favour by taking up this quest.' 'Quest'? Are we in Lord Of The Rings or something?

'It's not a problem, your Majesty. Can you please inform the guardians coming to the gym that they need to wear all black combat clothing, please. No white shirts.' It would be better while we're on this mission if we wore things that helped us blend into the night, so we need to get used to not wearing our normal guardian uniforms.

'It is done, Rose. Anything else?' Wow, I'm really not used to the Queen being this kind to me…

'Who will be guarding Princess Vasilisa when I go?' I didn't want to be guarding her anymore, it doesn't mean I can't be curious, right?

'I'm sure Edison Castile will be up for the task, Rose. Dismissed.' She smiled slightly at me as I bowed, something I have never really done for her, and back out the room. My mood felt a little lighter, and I'm sure the darkness that was in my thoughts has receded slightly.

Before going back to my quarters to get ready for going to the gym, I stopped off in the bar, avoided Adrian who was in his usual seat, and ordered a small vodka shot. Raising the glass I muttered 'To my new life' and downed it, throwing the money on the bar then leaving to my room.

* * *

><p>I dressed in a black fitted thermal shirt since it was pretty cold today and some baggy, black combat trousers and some black combat boots. I twisted my hair up into a messy bun to show off my marks, of course when I was on this mission I would wear it in a tight bun unless I was washing it. I don't want my hair ripped out by a strigoi. I almost went as far as to put war paint on my face, but since I wanted to show these guardians that even though I'm eighteen I still have authority over them and putting war paint on my face wouldn't really help my case. I put my stake into the holster around my waist, tightening the strap so it felt like a second skin, if I was out in the real world a strigoi may be able to grab me via my holster and I wouldn't want that to happen. I put my <em>nazari <em>around my neck and made sure it was safely tucked under my shirt so as not to obstruct me or serve as a weakness when I was fighting.

I looked at the alarm clock on my bedside table and saw I had at least an hour before I needed to be at the gym, so I thought that if I was going to be going on this mission soon that I might as well start packing, not that there was a lot of it.

I'd just finished filling my rucksack, leaving only the essentials for the next day out when there was a knock on the door. I really didn't feel like visitors but there's no point staying holed up in my room and only leaving when necessary. I didn't expect the person that was knocking on the door though.

'Ugh, Sparky, please I can't deal with this right now.' I let him in anyway though, shoving my rucksack off the bed, I dropped onto it and swung my legs, staring at him expectantly.

'You're packing?' His eyes met the rucksack I had pushed off my bed, one of the toggles was still swinging.

'Well done, Sparks.' The 'duh' tone in my voice was clear.

'No, I can see that, but why, Rose? Is it because of Lissa and Belikov? Because let me tell you now, that I don't approve of what she's doing, but she's not really listening to me at the moment.' Christian has never really sided with me in anything. I admit that he's not really siding with me, but he's agreed with me on something. It's a start, right?

'She told me to walk away or I'll ruin what she's trying to achieve, I've never really felt appreciated by her, you know, I was going to quit and just have done with everything. It's only because of the Queen's offer that I'm staying in my job. I won't be staying at court though. I never really liked the place anyway. Too many royals.' I shuddered slightly. It felt nice talking to someone that wasn't shouting at me and Christian Ozera was here to listen, so I wasn't going to pass the opportunity.

'Rose… I'm sorry to hear that, I wish there's something I could say to change your decision but I doubt there is. answer me one question though.' I nodded my consent. 'Rose, what mission is the Queen sending you on?'

'She's finally realised that a more active pursuit will be better for the moroi community.' Christian looked a little confused with my words, but then I saw a sudden thought dawning on him.

'When you say a more active role, you mean…' I didn't know why he couldn't say it. Yeah, it was pretty dangerous but we'll manage, I'll be going with the best.

'I mean that Tatiana is sending me and fifteen other guardians to try and get rid of the groups of strigoi that Mr. Belikov told us about.'

Sparky and I were silent for a few minutes, I was looking at his face while he absorbed the news, he clasped his hands together tightly as they were shaking a little.

'She does realise that it's a suicide mission, right? YOU realise that this is a suicide mission?'

'Oh, Sparky. Are you worried about me?' I tried to joke to lighten the mood, but he wasn't having any of it.

'Dammit, Rose. I know we've had our differences but you're like a little sister to me, an annoying one, but a sister all the same. Of Course I'm worried! This is a suicide mission. You can't go, Rose. She can't just send you away.' He didn't get it.

'She isn't forcing me to go, Christian. I need to get out. Everyone will be better off without me, Eddie will be guarding Lissa. Dimitri will get his guardian title back, Adrian can find someone to be with when I'm not in the way… It all makes sense. Please, Christian, don't make this harder for me. Just accept what I'm doing and move on with your life, I promise I'll call, skype, face book, whatever!' He gave me a withering look but got up and walked to the door, his hand rested on the handle.

'We're not finished, Rosie. I'll speak to Liss for you. She'll apologise.' I held his gaze.

'There's nothing to do, Christian. I've said I'll go, it's done.' I was startled as he brought his hand that wasn't on the handle up and punched the door, hard for a moroi.

'Fuck. Rose, I know I probably can't change your mind but I'm not going to stop trying.' He wrenched the door open and walked out, slamming the door behind him. I followed, deciding it was time to go to the gym and watched his retreating figure.

'I think of you as a sibling too.'

* * *

><p><strong>You know when you go to a restaurant and you talk about the meal after? <strong>

**Well I'd love it if you applied that to my story!**

**So please review and tell me what you thought of it, it'd mean the world to me! **

**~Ellie Hathaway **


	2. Motivational Speaker?

**All rights go to Richelle Mead. **

**Here's the next chapter, I hope you like it :) **

**2.**

The air in the gym was cool when I arrived, I spotted a few guardians there for training, Dimitri among them. I gazed at him, he must have been working out a while since he had taken his top off and was bench pressing in only shorts, I watched as his muscles rippled every time he pushed the weight up. As if he could sense me, his eyes met mine and his widened, I looked away but not before I saw him lose his grip on the bar and his spotter had to catch it before it hit him. I stalked forwards towards the corner of the gym that was closed off into a little office type thing, the walls made out of glass. There was a white board on the wall and about thirty chairs set up for briefings. There were about seven guardians in there so I decided to wait it out for the others, not wanting to make an entrance then having people walk in after me. Besides, I bet they think that it's going to be Janine Hathaway walking in there, not her daughter. I couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces.

I chanced a look at Dimitri again to see him off the bench and sitting down on a bench whilst doing bicep curls, I couldn't see the amount of weight he was using but from experience of watching him train at the Academy, I knew it was big. Just like before, his eyes met mine again and I could have sworn I saw a look of regret flash through his eyes and something else… I couldn't place my finger on it though so I didn't bother delving any deeper.

All of a sudden, a wave of sadness washed over me and it took me a while to realise that it had come from Lissa, _what does she have to be sad about? _She had the perfect life. Whatever, I shouldn't care after the way she's been treating me.

One by one the guardians that were missing when I looked before casually walked through the gym and headed to the little briefing room which we would spend the first twenty minutes in and then I was going to bring them out here and see what they could do with a little competition.

Once the final guardian walked in, I waited a minute before I walked in. Alright, I was actually sneaking a final look at Dimitri before I faced the guardians who were obviously older than me. There were a few who I didn't know in there as well and must be guardians who I hadn't seen around Court yet. Must be the ones on the day shift, I hardly ever paid attention to them really, and since I was only based wherever Lissa went, then we didn't venture far from the Queen's section of Court.

I had been monitoring the guardians as they came in and only noticed one female guardian, not one that I knew, but this was going to be a little tough with just me and her and then fourteen men. Although only one of them looked like a dick.

The door pushed open with a quiet _swish_ and softly closed behind me, they hadn't noticed me yet as they were stood in groups, talking about there own matters or what they were doing here. I knew they had been given a basic rundown of what they would be doing so I let them talk a while longer before making my way to the front of the room and stood before the whiteboard. I hoped a looked mature and ready for this. Otherwise… I was screwed.

'Hello, I'm Rose Hathaway…' None of them really listened to me, I thought these were supposed to be the best? Weren't they supposed to listen to people of authority, mind you, they didn't really know it was me that was going to be leading this. I waited a minute before deciding it was time to let my true Hathaway nature shine. I put my hands to my mouth and whistled. 'OI. Sit down and shut up, or I'll make you. You do not want to see me angry.' Especially when it's the darkness kind. To my amazement, they did what I said, there was a guardian sneering in the front row though. 'Problem?' I asked him.

'I was under the impression that it would be Guardian Janine Hathaway that would be conducting this mission. Not a recent graduate of St. Vladimir's.' He was the only one that looked amused, the other guardians were all being what a good guardian should be: attentive.

'Is it a problem for me to run this mission?' I asked in my most patronising voice, I laced it with a dangerous tone. One that clearly stated that if-you-fuck-with-me-then-you'll-pay. It was one of my favourites.

'Please, you're barely out of school and have no experience whatsoever.' I shifted my weight to my left foot and crossed my arms. I put on a fake thoughtfulness.

'You know, I never thought of it like that. I'm sorry, I didn't think that two _molnijas _and a _zvezda _above countless others that I haven't been marked with all before nineteen would count as no experience. I'll have to tell someone about that. Just so I know how much experience I'd need to have, can you tell me how many strigoi _you've _killed?' His face paled a little and I smirked. He mumbled something unintelligible. I noticed some of the other guardians smirking a little as well, I'm guessing this one isn't well liked. 'Sorry, what was that?' I tapped my foot a little.

'Three, Guardian Hathaway.' Three strigoi kills was impressive and he looked young too, but not as impressive as my kills. Not that they were anything to be proud of, a death is still a death, but in these terms, I needed a lot to get the authority I needed from the guardians to get this mission running smoothly.

'Impressive. Tell me, what does a battle star mean?'

'It means you've been in a battle with the strigoi and have killed too many to count.'

'Thank you. So does that mean I can continue on with the briefing then?' He nodded, looking down. 'Perfect.'

I addressed the whole room with my words next, commanding attention. I was used to the attention, just not used to the fact that I was getting it from older guardians without doing anything wrong.

'My name is Guardian Rose, never Rosemarie unless you want to be castrated, Hathaway. And I have one policy: If you do your job, respect me and don't fuck with me then I'm sure we'll get along.' There were a few smiles here and there, I knew that they knew I was being serious though. 'You all know why you're here but I think I'll refresh you're memories. The Queen has ordered me to conduct a raid of all possible strigoi hideouts that have been given to us by Mr. Belikov who spent some time as a strigoi. I am well aware that this is a very dangerous mission and if anyone wants to back out then I'm sure that I can get someone to fill the place. I won't hold grudges, I promise.' I winked slyly. No one walked out and I was glad for that, I really didn't want to chase up guardians to come with us. Yes, I was just that lazy, plus I didn't know many of them at Court.

'Okay, so from here on in, we'll be working together across Russia and some parts of Europe to try and get rid of the hideouts we've been informed of. I want you all to know that by taking this mission up, we're all putting our lives into each others hands and must develop a strong bond of trust between us all. Since there are no moroi coming with us, which is a little obvious…' I muttered. 'Then there will be no need to worry about a moroi getting captured. I want you all to know now that even though I may not know your names yet that I would put myself in danger for any of you. I am in charge of your safety on this shebang and I will tell you this now: no man or woman will be left behind.'

I spent the next ten minutes going over strategy and briefing them on the different hideouts, talking numbers and architectural blueprints of the buildings and other structures that we'll be dealing with. We need to know everything before we go storming in there.

I was now standing in front of the sparring mats after doing a few warm up drills, they knew what they were doing but I wanted to make sure, after all, none of them had really done a Dimitri Belikov warm up quite so intensely as the ones I did when I was training.

'Right, I'm going to get us into a little sparring competition to get a feel for everyone's fighting styles, so two people step up to the mats please and I'll watch you both to get a feel for your styles then I'll call some more people up and we'll get started. I smiled when I noticed that the female guardian was the first one up to the mats, I was also please to see that the cocky one from earlier stepped up as well, I just knew he was going to get his ass handed to him.

* * *

><p>Yesterday was good, I think we're really getting along in our little group and today was the day we were going to Russia. We would be there for a week to do some further bonding exercises before getting stuck in with the mission. I spoke with the other female guardian, Guardian Elly Pierce, yesterday and she's a really nice person and we both got along well. If we hadn't have gotten along then I don't what would have happened. Two rival girls in a group full of guys all going to Russia together to kill strigoi wouldn't have really worked out well.<p>

Anyway, we're leaving at 6:00pm in the Court's jet to Russia, we'll be staying in Baia funnily enough. I'd love to see the Belikovas but they would remind me too much of what I was leaving behind, even if he was being an idiot.

Even though there wasn't much respect for dhampirs, the Queen had gathered the whole of Court to wish us luck on our mission. I saw familiar faces and noticed how Christian wouldn't look at me and how Lissa was trying to catch my eye. The one face I was looking for wasn't there, and even though I knew he didn't love me anymore I still felt a pang of disappointment that he didn't even come to see me and the other guardians off even if it was just for the other guardians and not for me. They were silent until some guardians at the back of the crowd started shouting.

'This is a suicide mission!'

'You're sending an eighteen year old out with them! She'll be dead after the first attack!'

'This has gone too far!'

'Dhampirs deserve to be protected too!'

I couldn't take it anymore, and I saw the Queen just standing there, her face as placid as ever. I decided to take things into my own hands. Well, if no one else was going to do anything then I'm sure as hell going to.

'ENOUGH.' I was on the bottom step of the stairs that led up to the jet, the other guardians had gotten on before me and were ahead of me, I could feel some of them looking round at me, half of them were already on the jet just wanting to get it over and done with. They all knew that this could take years and were under the impression that the sooner we were off then the sooner we were going to be done. I admired them for their optimism.

My voice rung out louder and clearer than any of the protesting guardians in the crowd and I looked steadily at the group of men in the back. Well, I've got there attention now, I might as well say something.

'We have all agreed to go on this mission, we have been chosen personally by Queen Tatiana and we're honoured to be able to serve the community, dhampirs and moroi alike. For the person that just said I, Rose Hathaway, would be dead by the first attack then you're sorely mistaken. And I would like to be able to get my comrades spirits up while we set of on our mission so I would appreciate it if people stopped implying that we're going to fail. Because believe me when I say that we're not. And I have plenty of contacts to ensure that myself and my team of guardians will also be taken care of and protected if any of them get injured and are unable to keep on fighting. This is not a suicide mission.' My eyes scanned the crowd. I noticed that my words had caused the people that were shouting to be quiet. 'All of my fellow guardians will come back alive even if that means that I have to sacrifice myself for them. I am responsible for these guardians and I am old beyond my years which means I am more than qualified to protect them.' I heard a voice behind me and looked over my shoulder, seeing the rest of the guardians behind me and that Guardian Alexandru Ibanescu, who was the cocky one from the briefing the other day, was walking down to stand on the step behind me.

'Adding to Guardian Hathaway's words, we'd like you to know that we'll protect her too. We will not leave our leader behind if anything happens and I am ashamed that you guardians in the crowd have no faith in her. She will lead us to victory against the strigoi one day. And she's kickass so I wouldn't get on the wrong side of her if I were you.' I smiled at Alex, Alexandru was just too much of a mouthful, and nudged him back up to the plane gently, after our little tiff in the briefing room we'd become more respectful of each other.

'Thank you, Guardian Ibanescu, your words are appreciated.' I addressed my next words to the crowd. 'You see, we have a strong bond in our group. We will not fail. So please don't try and make it sounds like we're going to… It's pathetic.' I turned on my heel and walked up to the jet, slinging my rucksack onto my back and taking one last look at court.

'ROSE! YOU CAN'T GO! I'M SORRY, OKAY?' A woman screamed and I realised it was Lissa, I turned around and tried to look indifferent. Leaving her was killing me, but she wanted me to go, so that's what I'm doing. Besides, sorry isn't good enough. And to the whole of Court: good riddance.

I stepped onto the jet and prepared myself for the next years of my life, starting with the plane journey to Baia.

I nestled into my seat at the front after checking that all the guardians were ready to go and they had everything, I didn't want anyone suddenly rushing off because they'd forgotten to bring socks or something. I nodded to Alex who was sat next to me and he smiled in return.

'So, Boss, those were some cool things you said outside there. I, err… I'm glad that you're taking us out there.' He looked like he had to force the words out of his mouth and I smiled lightly. The plane took off with a jolt and I squeezed my arm rest a little and made sure I had my seatbelt buckled, I'd never really felt comfortable taking off.

'Thanks, Alex. You know me, I'm a cool person, I say cool things all the time.' He raised an eyebrow (damn, will I ever be able to do that?) and chuckled, taking a pack of cards out of his backpack.

'Wanna play? We can't play poker with just the two of us, but I play a mean game of Snap.' This earned an outright laugh from me and I nodded, taking the cards he gave me and resting them on the small table in front of us. We had been placing cards down for a minute before he broke the comfortable silence.

'Snap!' Wait, what? I looked at the cards and saw that we had both placed an eight onto the pile. How can I be losing at Snap? 'So, Boss… Rose, you really think we can do this?' It took me a couple of seconds to realise that he wasn't talking about the game and actually about what the next few years held in store for us.

'I think that we're a very skilled bunch of fighters and strategists and that we can have a go at anything coming our way.'

'That's not really answering the question though, is it?' I muttered 'Snap' when I saw two Queens go down and collected the cards, leaving them on the table in front of me and looking Alex in the eye.

'It's going to be hard, and we're going to be worked until we won't be able to work anymore and we feel like giving up, but I have faith in every single one of the guardians on this plane and I reckon that if we give it our all then we can do anything. We're going to have to train harder when we're not looking for the hideouts and scoping the places out , we're going to need to be a close knit group and look after one another as well as ourselves and we're going to have to be better than the best. But this is achievable. From now on, the word 'can't' isn't in our vocabulary.' I took a deep breath, noticing the silence of the other guardians and spoke a little louder. 'I believe everyone on this plane can achieve what we're setting out to do. We will complete this mission and we will all come back alive, no matter how difficult the situations we face are going to be.' I saw a few guardians relax a little and knew that my words had had an effect on them. I should become a motivational speaker, that'd definitely be a safer career choice. Alex and I went back to playing Snap until there was a little turbulence and the cards went all over the floor underneath where we were sitting.

'52 card pickup when we land?'

'You're on, Hathaway, be ready to lose.' I smirked, drumming my fingers on the table.

'I think I should be saying that to you. You do realise who you're talking to, right?'

* * *

><p><strong>So, what do you think? Let me know you're theories, I'd love to hear them!<strong>

**Thanks for all the brill reviews that you guys left, they were all so lovely and made me smile!**

**so keep 'em coming! **

**~ Ellie Hathaway**


	3. Sorry: Author's note

Hey, I just wanted to let you all know that the next chapter is the one with the time gap, as the story progresses I'll probably jump into some flashbacks here and there because I want to explore the years that Rose was out with her group of guardians targeting the hideouts and I think the best way to do that is to relate a flashback to the thing that's happening in the chapter I'm writing at the time. I hope this is okay with you all, and sorry about the author's note, but I just wanted to let you all know. We'll be meeting a lot of new characters in the next chapter that are a part of the group of guardians other than Elly Pierce and Alexandru Ibanescu who we have already met. Thanks for having the patience to read through this if you did, and sorry again! ~ Ellie Hathaway


	4. Alive, Dead And The Undead?

**The usual ****Disclaimer, no matter how much I wish it were true, I do not own Vampire Academy or anything to do with the books. **

**_I really appreciate all of the reviews you guys have given me, especially the grammar ones as I work really hard trying to make my writing flow and have a good structure so thank you for that! You're all amazing :) On with the show... _**

**So, this is where we skip ahead a little, I hope you enjoy it :) **

**3.**

It had been five years since I'd left court and I contemplated that as I worked out what we were going to do for this attack on the last strigoi hideout. I had changed quite a lot, I wouldn't really talk to anyone outside of my group of guardians and Christian, Eddie and Adrian, I wasn't as social as I used to be, I didn't go to parties, I ignored the calls from Lissa the first year and she'd began trying to call once every few months. Every time I saw her caller I.D I would let it ring. I had started smoking two years after leaving, and I understand why Adrian did it, it really did get you relaxed, and it helped me when I was working out the strategy part of the missions, which is why I have one lit right now. I had also dyed my hair, it was a sandy blonde now and shoulder length in a messy style which made it easier to manage as I didn't have to concentrate on brushing it on a morning when we were in a rush so it just looked styled (kind of like when Adrian and Christian have there's in a stylishly messy cut), it also helped me move on. I knew that _he _liked it as my deep brown almost black colour and I knew I was recognisable for it and the length, so it was one of the first steps for me to become a new, more mature and more disciplined Rose.

'Dougal! Get your ass over here and help me. I can't decide whether we should wait and do this one carefully or just storm in and get it over with since it's the last one. I want these bitches out so I can go back and tell the Queen.' I took a drag on my cigarette and leaned over the blueprint and map in front of me, the other guardians were getting their equipment ready, I had been ready for hours but that's just because I had developed a habit of waking up early. I always felt safer waking up just as the sun goes down, we're still on a night schedule, but it just made me feel less vulnerable when I know that I can wake up before I know that the strigoi will come roaming out of their hovels. But that was the start of the night and now, it's nearly dawn, I had made the mistake of thinking we could take a hideout when it was night last year and we almost lost a guardian because of it, he was sent back to Court to rest up and I'll be going to see him immediately when I return. So we've been waiting for the sun to come up these past ones, it's better and easier to get rid of them.

'Sure thing, Boss, what's the situation?' I loved how they called me Boss, I'd worked hard to get their respect and in return I respected them with everything I had. We'd become like a little family, I suppose.

'Well, I've given you all the basic information, so you know the jist of it, but I can't help thinking that I want to get this one over and done with. So I was wondering whether we just storm it and hope they all come rushing out so we can stake them quicker and that some of them will be stupid enough to be lured out into the sun or whether we should take this one out nice and quietly and try not to alert them to our presence. Or that when they do realise we're there, half of them are gone…' I took another drag on my cigarette and watched the smoke float towards the ceiling of the small motel room, gathering in the cracks of the dirty cream paint. 'Decisions, decisions.'

'Well, we've stormed quite a few, and although I really do love your battle cries, Boss,' I arched an eyebrow at that, something I had learnt to do over the years. My battle cries were pretty amazing. 'I reckon we should be stealthy on this one, it'll be a good change. Something relaxing before we go back. Besides, I rather like feeling like James Bond when I get stealthy.' He wagged his eyebrows at me and I couldn't help but laugh at his antics. Dougal and Alex had become pretty good friends and were part of my own group. Whenever we went on a raid we split into four groups of four, since Guardian Eric Johnson was back at court we had to get a fourth member for that group and it just so happens that I ran into Dennis and he's been helping us, and my group consisted of myself, Alexandru Ibanescu, Elly Pierce and Dougal McCannon.

'I like your logic, Dougal. Now get your boots on, it's starting to smell.' I teased him, it wasn't really starting to smell, but Dougal and I were a little famous for our loveable banter in the group.

'No, I think that's you, Hathaway. Have you had your weekly shower yet?' He wrinkled his nose but walked away before I could slap his arm. I went back to my maps and blueprints, snickering and shaking my head slightly.

It was ten minutes before we were set to go and I was going over the final plan with my friends, my fellow guardians and my brothers and sister.

'We've come this far, guys and gal,' I said, winking at Elly who smirked, I think my personality has rubbed off on her a little over these five years. 'And I'm proud to have served beside you in times of victory and in times of peril.' I remembered the first time we raided a hideout and had succeeded, our first victory, and I remembered when Eric was almost lost and I got my first and most horrific scar when I jumped in front of a strigoi so he could remove himself to safety, our first moment of severe peril. I said the next words while tracing the roped, puckered scar that crossed my abdomen and went halfway around my back, the scar was thicker on my hip where the cut was deeper. The strigoi had been using a knife. 'This will be our final raid and even though we're being stealthy about it, I want to make sure we go with a bang. So, let's get this over and done with in true Hathaway style!' I tucked the maps and blueprints into my trouser waistband and stayed behind to check that no one had left anything in the room whilst the rest of them filed out. The bland colours and furnishings looked back at me, and I was never more eager to leave than I was now. I followed Jonathon out of the door and clicked it shut, we got down the stairs quickly and I dropped the keys to the room on the front desk before heading out with the others and taking lead at the front of the group.

* * *

><p>'Right, when all else fails… run.' I whispered to the group of three people next to me. That was our little motto in the group, it reminded me of <em>him <em>a little but I refused to think of that when I was getting into battle mode.

'Yes, Guardian Hathaway.'

My group, G.U.1, otherwise known as Guardian Unit 1 would be entering through a second floor window where we knew that the room would be clear this time of day, we'd been watching the house for months. We also liked to call ourselves the Kickass Guardians but we're being professional right now. I clicked the communicating button on my ear piece and left it open, just in case anyone needed us during the raid but I needed to check we were all in position first.

'Guardian units, report status, over.' I'd always wanted a walkie talkie to do this on, but I had to admit that these earpieces were much more convenient when fighting. The connection buzzed and I heard Guardian Novikov's voice checking in.

'G.U.2 in position by the West underground entrance, over.' Next was Guardian Randa, who I had dubbed Randy Randa because he was a bit of a ladies man, he hated the nickname but everyone else seemed pretty taken with it.

'G.U.3 in position by the East entrance, all clear for the moment, Guardian Hathaway, over.'

And next was Guardian Gaidar. He had an unfortunate name considering he was working with me, so his nickname was Gaydar, and he did have an excellent Gaydar considering he was actually gay. Hey, I'm not complaining, it's nice having someone who can give me a girl's and a guy's opinion on something I'm wearing at the same time. It's pretty cool.

'G.U.4 in position on the North side of the building, entrance through a second story window seems to be simple and there seems to only be one strigoi in the room at the moment. Over.'

'Everything's in order, G.U.1 is in position and raring to go. Begin storm on _Buria. _3...' I got a good foothold and began scaling the wall, I knew that G.U.4 would be doing the same, we had done this enough times to know what to do without cues. '2..' I knew there was no one in the room, but I couldn't help but be a little cautious when I looked through the glass and began removing the pane of glass with a special piece of equipment that the Queen had sent, it was far less noisier than smashing or trying to open the window. There was a gap in the curtains, I couldn't hear anything as I leaned towards it, but I knew strigoi could be unpredictable. '1...'

'_Buria._'

I didn't hesitate to burst through the window, landing quietly and stepping onto the carpet with a small tread. The room was nothing special, but I knew that already with all the planning we've done.

I surveyed the room in a matter of milliseconds, my guardian training was to thank for that, and I didn't notice anything that was abnormal in the room. Except for a dead human in the corner. Her throat had been ripped out, the insides of her neck were splattered on the wall behind her and there was a huge red stain underneath her body. She had been pretty before her insides were ripped out. I noticed teeth marks and scars on her shoulders where the rags she was wearing barely covered.

I motioned for Pierce to check the body for identification while McCannon, Ibanescu and I crept towards the closed wooden door. With all the vigorous training we had done, our senses had heightened and we had become stronger… faster. An elite group of guardians. So I used those senses to see if anyone was on the landing outside, I motioned to the rest of G.U.1 and told them that I could hear two strigoi on the landing and that Ibanescu and myself should take them out, they were facing away from us so we would have a split second to stake them. We had devised hand signals after our first three raids, believing that it would be easier and make the initial attack much cleaner and devoid of incidents.

Pierce, having found no identification, stayed as backup with McCannon and we opened the door quickly so it wouldn't make a lot of noise and spotted the strigoi quickly, knowing they were at least three steps from the door and to each side of it. The strigoi had barely turned around before our stakes had pushed up through the ribs and, avoiding the sternum, into their cold, dead hearts. I caught the strigoi before it fell and let her down on the floor gently so there wouldn't be much of a noise. I noticed Ibanescu doing the same and then spotted Gaidar and Gabrelovic with another two strigoi, the rest of G.U.4, Filipov and Vyshinski, behind them. I nodded to them then motioned for Pierce and McCannon to check the rooms off the side, looking at Filipov and Vyshinski to do the same. Before any of us could move though, and before those four could check the rooms, a high pitched, loud screeching noise came from all of our earpieces. I clutched at my head and couldn't react in time to grapple with the strigoi that came out of the other rooms having heard the noise, there were about ten of them, one for each and then two leftovers for whoever had finished first. I couldn't be one of the ones that got two to stake as the strigoi that came rushing at me launched me backwards and crashing through the banister that blocked me from falling. The wood splintered beneath myself and the strigoi and we both went crashing through it, my head hitting the steps as we tumbled down them. I knew I would be the one worse off as the strigoi was stronger than me and wouldn't be hurt for long, so I managed to stake his thigh, not being able to move my arms any higher due to the pace and awkward angles we were falling at.

We hit the bottom of the stairs and by now the whole house had come alive, strigoi were pouring out of every door, I had a fleeting glance of some of my guardians running to the scene from their entrance rooms/points and thanked high heaven that I wouldn't be facing them alone. The strigoi that had gracefully sent me tumbling down the stairs shot upwards, already recovering. I mirrored his movements, getting up a split second after he had but still in tremendous pain. I felt something warm and sticky on the back of my head and started to feel a little dizzy with the speed that I stood up at. My legs were both killing and I think one of my arms had gone, dislocated at the shoulder from being pushed through the banister. Luckily, it was my left and not my right, otherwise I wouldn't be able to stake. I could deal with the dislocation later, I'd fought with worse.

The strigoi looked old, and I could tell he was a dhampir before being turned, I didn't want to think of how much stronger and taller than me he was. But I knew how to use this to my advantage. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, right? I ducked quickly as a fist came flying at my head, I didn't need any more damage there, and stood up, quickly sending a right hook to his shoulder. Staggering a little, the strigoi snarled at me. Yes, snarled, is he some kind of wolf or something. Or vampire? Oh wait… I manoeuvred under his reaching arms and round to his back, sweeping my leg out and catching the back of his, causing him to fall on his face and I was able to throw myself onto his back and keep him there, staking his through the back. Not the most eloquent kill I've made, but it did the job as the strigoi shuddered then fell limp, his face still in the carpet.

'Rose Hathaway. I've heard you've been taking out bases for the past five years. You're not going to take this one.' I looked up into the face of a thin but muscled strigoi, her eyes gleamed red around the irises. A moroi before she was turned, which was why she was dead with my stake in her chest about a minute after she'd started talking.

I lost track of how many strigoi there were and of how many I had killed, I suspected that they knew we were going to target them next as there were more strigoi here now than there were whenever we watched the house. Unless they had been underground, I hope G.U.2 got through them okay if they were underground in the basement and the tunnels. Before I could finish my speculation another strigoi came at me: Male, 6ft 6", Russian, Brown hair, brown eyes ringed with red. I couldn't help but think of Dimitri and because I had failed in killing him (not that I was complaining about that, because if I had killed him then he wouldn't be here now) I was going to make sure that I didn't leave this one until I made sure he was dead.

We grappled and injured one another, throwing insults and sneers back and forth at each other, he had almost gotten a bite in at one point but I had trained harder and longer so I was fast when I got out of his grip and plunged my steak into his chest. I took it out again and pushed it back through the hole in his chest, making it go deeper. I pulled my stake out, not concentrating on the fact that my hand was covered in gore, and kept staking him, pushing him down onto the floor and using all of my strength.

It wasn't until someone called my name that I stopped, looking around quickly and seeing Alexandru stood close to me, his breath turned misty in the air since it was always cold where the strigoi were.

'Rose.' He pulled me up from my position, taking the stake out of the body I had substituted for my past mistakes, and held me close. 'I couldn't find you. I thought I'd lost you. And he's, err… pretty dead, Rose, there's no need to pummel him again. Let's get outta here, I could use some fresh air.' By the time we got outside the getaway vehicles were there (driven by some alchemists) and I was leaning heavily on Alex and I could barely drag my feet forwards. My dislocated arm stung like a bitch and I had lost the feeling in my legs a little. My head was still pounding and the dizziness hadn't gone but when I saw everyone else I knew that I hadn't got the worst of the injuries. A number of the guardians were unconscious: Katko, Rebikov, Vyshinski, Dennis was there and Filipov.

'When are they going to wake up?' I nodded towards them, my head falling forwards and I barely noticed that my voice sounded groggy and slow. Alex, having enough of my slow pace, put his hands under my elbows and directed me over to a stretcher that had been brought over to us by Jimmy Randa. I made no protest as I was laid down gently and taken over to one of the vehicles, a van with medical equipment in the back. I knew they would have to reset my shoulder and arm but I was feeling a little too… _off _and I didn't want them to do it. I know it's stupid because it could do some serious damage but with the Court's jet it'll only take us about two hours to get back to court and I can be drugged up until we get there, besides I want to have a proper doctor do it for me.

'Vyshinski and Filipov will wake up soon, they only got caught a little, a punch to the head. They'll be fine.' That's a relief but he was still keeping something from me.

'And the others…?'

'Katko, Rebikov and Dennis… won't be waking up. They got hit hard, Boss… They're from G.U.2... The group that went through the underground route? It seems the strigoi had been down there in force. Novikov only got out because he took down five strigoi on his way up whilst protecting those three… They will be sorely missed. By everyone.' I closed my eyes, I never cry, but my eyes were stinging as I was put in the van.

'No, I don't want it. Don't set my shoulder, I'll get a proper doctor from Court to do it so I can make sure nothing will go wrong. I'll be fine. Just give me drugs, Sydney.' I said, noticing her amongst another two alchemists that were in the van. She nodded, she knew better than to argue with me. I deserved to feel the pain, but I knew that it would get me no where. How could I be so stupid as to think that they wouldn't suspect us to come after all the other hideouts we'd stormed they'd probably know they may be one of the targets, right? We'd been hit hard today, lost three lives and all because I hadn't been paying enough attention. I'd promised that all of us would come back alive… I had broken my promise to all of the guardians that I had taken with me. But damn me to hell if I don't protect the rest of them that are still alive to the best of my ability, I can't handle it if I lose any of the others. It would kill me inside, I hated breaking promises to them, they had become sort of like a family to me… we had been through so much together. I couldn't help but let my anger for myself grow as the needle was pushed into my skin and I was rendered into blissful, painless unconsciousness. That was true until we arrived and I had to wake up and walk off of the plane. No matter how shitty I was feeling I would not let other people see me vulnerable. In front of the guardians, it's another story, but I had grown a tough skin and I would not let certain people see past that. I left for a reason and that reason has caused me to harden my heart and be extremely selective of the people I let in, I had changed a lot and there was no going back.

* * *

><p><strong>As usual, any reviews are appreciated!<br>I'd also like to inform you that my exam season is starting and chapters may not be updated as regularly as I would like them to be.  
><strong>**So, please be patient with me if I don't update once a week, gaps between chapters may be a little longer as I have tons of revision classes to attend and the actual exams themselves :/**

**And I know it's not really a viable excuse, I hate it when people say they have to stop writing for a while because of exams, but I would really appreciate it if you're still being regular readers even though I'm not updating that often. **

**Thanks for reading!  
>~ Ellie Hathaway <strong>


	5. Admiration From The Fallen?

**_The usual disclaimer, no matter how much i wish it were true, i do not own VA, that belongs to the lovely Richelle Mead. _**

**_Chapter four is here and Rose has arrived back at the Moroi Court after taking out the final strigoi hideout that they had set out to neutralise. _**

* * *

><p><strong>4.<strong>

When I awoke from my induced unconsciousness I was informed that Queen Tatiana had been notified of our impending arrival as soon as we got on the plane and would be coming out to meet us on the Court's air strip. Which meant that even though I was injured, I would be expected to give her a report of all of our dealings with the strigoi over the past years. Luckily, I had become a lot more organised over the years and had kept a journal describing every single thing that had taken place within our bases, that had been organised in briefings and how we have stormed the strigoi and dealt with injuries, as well as an evaluation after each attack to see what could be made better. I had even recorded some of the training exercises I had come up with, much to Pete's chagrin. _'Boss.' _He had said to me, _'Can I see that video you just recorded?'_

'_Can I ask why…? You know it's for the Queen, what if I don't want to show you it?' I knew why he didn't want to see it, Elly had gone all badass on him and made sure he wouldn't be able to walk comfortably for the next week, it's lucky that we're not storming a hideout until the 31st__ October three months later. I wanted to dress up in Halloween costumes but we couldn't decide on what to dress up as so we ended up scrapping that idea. _

'_Please, Rose, I'll be humiliated when the guardians back at Court see it.' The Queen thought it would be a good idea to send our training sessions on video back to the guardians at Court so they could maybe learn something from them which means that any and all embarrassing situations will be sent too. It's fun when you see their faces after they've fallen over or something when I'm filming, they know what they've done and it's hilarious. _

'_Sorry, I can't edit the videos, the Queen has requested them and if I tamper with them I'll be breaking her orders.' Just then Brett Katko and Spartak Gabrelovic walked by stuffing their faces with food, Tacky, as he was more commonly known, patted Pete on the back after hearing what we were talking about. Then he spoke round his mouth of food._

'_Tough luck, mate. Nothing you can do.' _

'_Ew, really? Can't you at least finish eating before you talk, that's disgusting, Tacky.' I groaned, hitting him round the back of his blonde haired head. His blue eyes widened in surprise and he laughed out loud, Pete and Brett along with him._

'_Since when do you care, Hathaway?' Brett questioned, the first one to recover from his laughing._

'_Since I have to spend twenty four hours at a time with you lot, have some manners. But you're right, I don't know why I just said that when I do it too.' _

Brett had been a valuable member of the group, I should have taken G.U.1 on the underground route instead of G.U.2, then they would most likely be alive, him, Gleb Rebikov and Dennis.

Queen Tatiana was the first to walk up to us when we were off the plane, her appearance hadn't changed much over five years, she looked a little older though. Being the Queen Bee was probably getting to her, not like I care that much.

'Guardian Hathaway, welcome back, I trust you've been successful?' I noticed other people behind the Queen: her guardians and a few royal moroi, it didn't comfort me that I saw Lissa there with Dimitri standing by her and Christian. He's probably been her guard since I went, I seriously thought that he would have gone with Tasha, but it's not my business anymore even if I couldn't help but wonder.

'I wouldn't call losing three people successful, your Majesty, but the strigoi hideouts have been taken care of.' I could feel my shoulder now, and I mean _really _feel it. It was like a dull burning sensation, the epicentre in my dislodged joint. I gritted my teeth against it and looked behind me to the guardians coming off the plane, I saw the alchemists stay there, they would be flying back to Russia in an hour, I doubt they wanted to come into Court where it's full of evil beings of the night. Sydney had learnt to deal with us dhampirs while she was working with us though, I was happy about that. Tatiana brought my attention back to her by clearing her throat lightly.

'It's good news that you were able to neutralise the strigoi, Rosemarie, and I'm sorry to hear about the guardians… what were their names?' Typical, she didn't even know the names of the three men that had sacrificed themselves for the moroi community. If a moroi had died, she would know their name, but a dhampir? She wouldn't stoop that low.

'Guardians Gleb Rebikov, Brett Katko and a very good friend of mine named Dennis who joined us after Guardian Johnson was sent back here. Can I ask how he's doing?'

'Guardian Johnson made a good recovery. I'll be expecting your report, Guardian Hathaway, have it to me within the week.' She began to turn away, but I spotted Erik Vyshinski handing me a small, leather bound diary that held my report (minus the latest one). I took it from him, nodded my thanks and called the Queen back.

'Queen Tatiana, I have my report here, the only missing report is the latest one, I can have that to you by tomorrow if I'm quick about it. I hope everything is to your satisfaction, your Majesty.' I bowed to her while handing over the little red book, she nodded to me.

'Very well, Hathaway. And thank you.' She left along with her guardians and the royal moroi that hadn't spoken throughout.

I turned to Alex and Elly who were the nearest to me, my arm protesting a little at the motion, I winced and gritted my teeth again. I was tough, but dealing with a dislocated shoulder, possible very bruised legs and lacerations over most of my body, not to mention a thumping headache, was enough to render me a little unstable.

'I need to get to the clinic. Now.' They nodded and Elly stayed to organise the guardians and the rest of the injured whilst Alex accompanied me, wrapping an arm protectively around my waist, supporting me and also comforting me after I noticed that Lissa and Dimitri were still here. Christian, I didn't mind so much since we had kept contact a little.

'Rose… It's good to see you.' Sparky stepped forward and patted me on my shoulder, the bad one, I gasped in pain and Alex shot a disapproving look towards Christian. 'Rose, what's wrong?' Christian looked towards Alex for an answer, he was still glaring at Sparky.

'Dislocated shoulder. Nothing I can't handle if I get to the clinic now, I just need someone to set it so I can get down to writing my report for the Queen.' I turned around and saw Elly looking at me, a question in her eyes, I'm pretty sure she was asking what I was still doing here, even the other injured guardians had been sent to the clinic now and they were being carried on stretchers. I shrugged one shoulder then said, 'Princess Vasilisa, I would appreciate it if you did not take another step towards me, I'll have you know that it has become incredibly difficult for me to be taken by surprise.' I turned back around and Lissa's shocked face had me smiling a little, of course I had used my connection with her a little to see what she was doing behind my back but I can sense anyone now after the hard training that the guardians and myself had been through. 'And Guardian Belikov? Please control your charge.'

He looked shocked that I had spoken to him, albeit indirectly since I wasn't looking at him, and I revelled in the fact that I had had an effect on him. Christian raised an eyebrow at me, I know he was silently telling me that I was being childish but I didn't care. I turned to Alex who had inched a little closer to me out of protection, again… _yawn. _Why does he think I need protecting? I signalled to him that I really needed to go now since my arm was about to drop off and he nodded, pulling me along gently.

'Christian, can you get in touch with Adrian and Eddie? I'd like to have a catch up later if you wouldn't mind? I think there's a lot we need to talk about.'

'It would be my pleasure, Rosemarie.' He smirked, moving over to take Lissa's hand and stand next to her in front of Dimitri.

'Call me Rosemarie _one _more time and I'll-'

'Boss… Ro? We need to get you fixed up, come on.' I loved it when he called me Ro, He had such a lovely voice… 'Please? I know your arm is about to drop off and I'd prefer it if you had two arms to use.' I chuckled and kissed his cheek, we had tried to have a relationship a couple of years ago and I had called it off because I still wasn't over Dimitri and I knew that Alex still wasn't over me. I couldn't help but think that maybe we might be able to try again. I thought that seeing Dimitri would hurt but it hasn't really affected me, I don't feel as if my heart is about to jump out of my chest. Then again, he hasn't spoken one word since I got here. Or looked me in my eyes. Don't get me wrong, I could feel his presence and it affected me but maybe because I hadn't seen him in forever the affect is diluted? I have no idea.

'Okay, Alex. Drag me to my personal hell, you know I hate hospital places.' I should have a permanent room in the Court infirmary and at the academy, I'm in there often enough.

'Alright, come on then, Trigger.' I groaned loudly, startling our mini audience. Alex pulled me away and headed towards the infirmary, I could still hear Elly barking out orders behind us but there was a silence from where Christian, Lissa and Dimitri were. I looked back over my shoulder, I was going to damage it one day with all the looking behind me, and my gaze met Dimitri's beautifully warm and brown eyes. He made like he was going to say something but thought better of it, to which I was a little disappointed, I thought he'd at least say welcome back or something. Guess not.

'Really? Trigger, still? I'm never going to live it down, am I?'

'Not as long as I'm alive, Hathaway. Deal with it.' I glared at him as we got into the Court buildings, walking towards the Hospital Wing part of the building. I'd know my way here blind folded, that's how many times I've been here.

'I'll give _you _something to deal with in a minute.'

'I'll take that as an innuendo, so thanks.' Before I could hit him, he pushed me into the infirmary, winking as he did so. I glared at him until the door was shut then walked over to the desk and smiled at the receptionist behind it.

'Hi, I need my shoulder setting, it's dislocated. And I need my legs checking and my head also, for a small concussion. Should I wait over there?' The receptionist, moroi, shook her head and rushed off to find a doctor, I presume. I couldn't really care less, I just needed someone whose qualified to hit my shoulder back into place, nothing major.

'Guardian Rosemarie Hathaway, it's good to see you.' Blinking, I shook my head and looked closely at the person in front of me, who was grinning a little.

'Aren't you supposed to be at the academy?'

'I couldn't leave my favourite patient now, could I, Rose? How've you been, I hear you've dislocated your shoulder, we'll have that sorted out in a jiffy, follow me please.' Dr Olendski led me into one of the examination rooms and motioned for me to sit on the bed, which I did and marvelled at how the hospital beds were still as uncomfortably flat as I remember. 'Painkillers?' She asked, holding up a syringe, I shuddered a little and shook my head.

'I have a kickass pain threshold, you may need some help getting this back in, by the way.' She called the receptionist and they both stood with two hands on my shoulder, Dr Olendski nodded to the receptionist.

'We're dealing with an anterior dislocation so this should be pretty simple, ready Rose?' Nodding my head, I braced myself a little. 'Right then, 3,2,1...push.' They both put my shoulder back into position and the bones could be heard scraping together and I felt the pop as it went back in, and boy, I have a high pain threshold but that shit was painful. _Very _painful. I couldn't help but release a shriek loud enough to startle some of the other people in the waiting room. funnily enough, the young receptionist felt it pop back into place too and let go of my shoulder as if it was the most repulsive thing in the world.

'Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew…' She ran out the room and Dr Olendski shouted after her.

'Clarence, you can't expect to become a nurse if that disgusts you!' I almost choked laughing. Clarence? What kind of a name was that?

'Anyway, on with the show then, Rose? It'll be just like old times. Alberta says hello, by the way, she'll be visiting next week with a few other guardians and some of the royal moroi students so they can have a look around.' I smiled, it'll be good to see Alberta again, I had missed her while I was away.

**DPOV**

Her _hair. _What had she done? Her lovely long and luscious chocolate brown hair was destroyed. Was this some kind of petty thing she's done to get back at me because of the many times I had told her how much I loved her hair? But no, I can't think about this. _Get a grip, Dimitri. She doesn't concern you anymore. _Oh but how I wish she did.

Princess Vasilisa and Lord Ozera were walking in front of me, speaking in quiet, hushed voices, I presumed it was about Rose, but it's not my business to interfere with moroi affairs. My only concern was towards Princess Vasilisa, and even though Lord Ozera was adamant that I don't look out for him, I did it anyway, for the Princess. I owed her a lot, she gave me my life back and that was something that I couldn't forget easily. _Rose gave you your life back. Your _Roza.

'She's not my _Roza _anymore.' It took a second for me to realise that I had spoken aloud and that Lord Ozera and Princess Vasilisa had looked back towards me, their eyebrows raised. 'Sorry, Princess. Lord Ozera. 'I bowed respectively and motioned for them to carry on to the dining hall. They had both fed earlier so they wouldn't be in there long. As we walked past the infirmary we all heard a shriek then a groan of pain along with a woman making disgusted sounds, without seeing who it was I could tell by the sound that it was Rose, it hurt that I couldn't take the pain away but I knew she wouldn't let me after all that I had done. I was a class A Idiot.

I took my usual position at the table with Princess Vasilisa and Lord Ozera whilst one of the other guardians, a far guardian, took position up against the wall looking as if he were daydreaming. I knew better and could tell that his keen eyes kept sweeping the place for danger. I liked that about Guardian Castile, he never relaxed when he was on the job unlike some of the other guardians his age, he was always alert and ready for anything. I knew he still thought about Mason Ashford and maybe he was trying to make up for that since he couldn't help, not that that was his fault at all.

'Liss, please just go and talk to her…. For me? For her? It's killed me to see you all lifeless and I hate that I can't do anything about it. I know you want to talk to her, so go, find out when she's out of the infirmary and visit her room or something, or when she's with her guardians, she won't want to disagree with a direct order from you in front of them.' Lord Ozera was speaking about Rose, it's take a fool not to realise that, but it sparked my interest. Would the Princess go and speak to her? That would mean that as the near guardian I'd have to go with her.

'She won't talk to me, Christian. You saw how she looked at me earlier. Well, barely looked at me, I don't think she can stand to look at me. I hurt her so bad, Chris…'

'Princess Vasilisa, if I may?' She looked at me, startled that I was there probably, I had gotten good at making myself unnoticed in a crowd which was a little difficult considering my height. I spoke after she had nodded her consent. 'I don't think anyone hurt her as much as I did, Princess. She'll forgive you in time, make no mistake of that. You're her best friend, no one can replace you in her life, me however? Guardian Ibanescu looked pretty close to her.' I looked towards Eddie, catching his eye and motioning for him to take my place while I went and stood by the wall. I waited for him to sit down before I moved.

From here I could see the whole of the dining hall and noticed when some guardians came in and sat down: Elly Pierce, Dougal McCannon, Erik Vyshinski and Jimmy Randa. They noticed Eric Johnson who was sat at a table by himself and walked up to him chattering excitedly. Pierce hugged him and inspected his arm which was heavily scarred after his injury, he'd had a chunk of flesh and muscle bitten from him by one of the strigoi, I heard him saying that Rose 'sorted him out' for Eric when she saw him go down. I also heard he didn't die as quickly as the rest of the strigoi. Eric had spoken with barely concealed admiration for Rose and I couldn't help but be extremely proud of what she had achieved with them, of how she had earned their respect even though she was a good couple years younger than them all. I was proud to have said she was my student and even prouder to say that although I had taught her a lot, she had taught me more. And for that, I was thankful to her. Beautiful _Roza_.

The heavy wooden doors to the dining hall banged open and the object of my thoughts walked into the room, a sling around her arm and limping slightly, but looking stronger than ever.

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><p><strong>I'm not really very pleased with how this turned out, I'll possibly rewrite some of the bits i'm not happy about in due time.<br>So, as usual, let me know what you think and your theories about what's happening with Rose and our favourite characters :)  
>Dimitri was a little OOC, sorry about that, i feel more comfortable writing in Rose's POV but i thought i'd give it a try, so sorry if that was a little disappointing to you : **

**~Ellie Hathaway **


	6. Cute Pictures And An Apology?

**The usual disclaimer applies: Richelle Mead owns all rights to Vampire Academy, i just like playing with the characters :) **

_**So here's chapter five, I hope you all enjoy it!**_

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><p><strong>5.<strong>

'Do my eyes deceive me or is there really an angel stood before me?'

'Can it, Johnson. How've you been?' Eric Johnson stood with a few of my guardian friends and was looking healthier than ever, his wound had really healed up but I knew that he would still get a little pain from it every now and again, injuries like that never really went away. He'd have a hard time getting it back to full health and in use, he was also going to have to learn to make his other hand the dominant one when staking since he was left handed.

'I've been good besides having my arm mauled, I've been training too, you know? Trying to get back to full health and all that. Of course, my arm won't be the same again, Princess Vasilisa had tried to heal it and did as much as she could, but there'll always be an after effect of the damage that had been done. But I'm ready and willing to get back into the training sessions, Boss. Don't go easy on me, please. I've only ever been coddled since I came back, I kind of missed all your disciplinary training and other drills.' We all sat down at the table that Eric was occupying, I was a little disgruntled to see that he had been alone before any of us had spotted him, he was a hero for doing what he did while he was away. Who knows though, maybe he wanted a little peace and quiet? I grabbed an apple off of his tray, ignoring his accusing look, and considered his question.

'You really want to get back out there, training and stuff, after what happened?' Genuine curiosity bubbled inside of me.

'Yes, it's been so _boring _back here, I wanted to be back with you guys. Out there, in the real world, not here where there's no action. Being under your command has changed the way I think and feel about things concerning strigoi and the proper way to deal with them. Every time I even tried to get back out there, I wasn't allowed. They _refused _to let me go…'

'It wasn't exactly a picnic, mate.' Dougal muttered, nursing a steaming cup of black coffee in his hands, for a second I wondered where he'd gotten it but noticed that there was a coffee machine next to the table we were sitting at. I hadn't noticed a coffee machine here before, maybe they got it while we were away. What was I doing again…?

'Let's say, for argument's sake, that you were able to come back, what would you have done? How would you have helped?' I had him there, he and I both knew he wouldn't have been able to actively take part in storming the hideouts, as much as he would have liked to, I wouldn't have allowed it for a start. I did miss his input while we were out there, he was a kickass tactical officer but I knew that wouldn't be enough for him. Hell, I wouldn't like it if I had to sit around and watch my fellow guardians go after the strigoi while I had to sit in a dingy motel room.

'I would have made sure I did as much as I could in my condition.' _Not as easy as you think, Johnson. _I had hidden many an injury from the group so I didn't have to sit around and be coddled back to health, I wanted to be out doing what I did best, not sitting pretty on the sidelines.

'Believe me, if you were out there and you were sat on the sidelines, it wouldn't be enough for you. You'd want to try and help, and in doing so, you'd put people at risk because they'd be trying to watch to see if you were safe whilst fighting strigoi in difficult conditions. You'd be more of a hindrance than an advantage.' Brutal, but true. I had always spoken truthfully when speaking to my group of guardians, more so than usual in the past two years. I bit into the apple I was holding and finished it off while I let Eric steam over my words, hopefully it wouldn't take him long to realise I was right. I threw the core of the apple into the nearest bin and stood up, stretching my leg muscles and feeling some slight discomfort from all the bruising. They had took a beating that had bordered on barbaric, but I had to be strong and maintain my usual calm and collected manner around my men, if I was to lose my façade then the group would know that something was wrong since I hardly ever became panicked or lost myself. They looked up to me as a pillar of strength, and although I was flattered and it fed my ego quite a bit, it was difficult for me to actually show my fear around them. To tell you the truth, I was scared silly these past five years but I had learnt to push those fears aside for my friends and combatants.

'Elly, would you come with me and help with my report for Queen Tatiana? It shouldn't take long and you can get back to relaxing afterwards.' I ran my right hand through my blonde locks, something I usually used my left hand for but since that was in a sling I'd have to make do, and sighed a little. Doing the reports was part of my job specification, doesn't mean I have to like it.

'Sure thing, Rose.' She stood, her black clothes still unchanged from when we walked off of the plane, the other guardians had all put on something more informal since we had been given three weeks leave, so to speak. I still had my black clothes on, 'strigoi-bashing' clothes was my dubbed term for them. I only had about three outfits that weren't to do with my job, I guess I needed a shopping trip. 'See you later, guys. Don't blow anything up.' On one of our three relaxation nights a year, while we were away, myself and Elly had retired to our current motel room that we shared together while the guys had stayed outside. They thought it would be funny to throw an aerosol onto a small fire we had built to keep the chill away, they got an earful from Elly and I… I like to think we got through to them, but we always had to give them a reminder for the sake of our sanities.

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><p>Elly and I were just finishing off the report and had come to the injury section, I scribed the injuries that had befallen myself and a few members of the group: concussions, heavy bruising, broken arms, dislocated shoulders, a bite.. Writing this down didn't bother me as much as the next section: I had to write a list of the dead. Which had, until now, remained blank on every single report I had fashioned.<p>

_Guardian Gleb Rebikov_

_Guardian Brett Katko_

Technically, Dennis hadn't been a guardian but I still wrote down his name in my messily looped scrawl. These were names that I now carried with me, names that had been full of life and because of a mistake on my part, they now carried death. Of course, I'll always carry the good memories but there will always be a part of me that knows how I could have avoided writing these names down. If I had only sent my own group down the underground route then we would have surely made it out with less of a scathe.

'Hey, don't dwell on it. We've all been affected, but it was something unavoidable, none of us knew that there were that many of them down there.' A comforting hand rested on my shoulder and I looked into Elly's turquoise eyes.

'I should have known there were more than we thought down there. I'm supposed to know these things, I was supposed to protect them.' Vehemence wrapped itself around my voice and hung in the air between us.

'You can't protect everyone, Rose. That's just how it works… sorry..' Her words sparked something within me and I stood from the table we had been working at, pushing my papers aside.

'I may not be able to protect any of you half as well as I should be able to, but I can die trying, Elly… I'm going for a walk. Deliver that to the Queen for me, will you?' I walked quickly out of the room, hearing a faint 'Yes, Boss.' behind me.

In my second year of leading the elite group of guardians under my command I had been told by my father, in one of his weird omniscient moods, that fresh air can cleanse the soul. And boy, did mine need cleansing!

The moroi Court was beautiful this time of year, early autumn when the weight of dusk was resting over us, and I took deep breaths as I walked the perimeter, just inside the wards, nodding to guardians that were stood on duty. The early night air was a little chilly but I had learnt not to be affected by this and walked in the shadows of the trees, letting the dusk envelope me. Something we had learnt to do over the past five years, it made us invisible for want of a better term. The breeze lifted my hair and it swayed gently, it was times like this I still wished my hair was how it used to be, but this shorter hair was much more practical, and the short ponytail didn't cover my marks as much as my longer one had. We would be getting our _molnijas _and _zvezdas _soon for the work we had done and I didn't want he view of them to be hindered, I wanted people to know the trials we had been through. I would be getting a total of 23 _molnija _marksand because I had lost count after that (after the first three hideouts), I would be getting 7 _zvezda_ to make up for it, others had kept count of their kills and would receive more _molnija _but I prefer to have the _zvezda _so I could have more room for other marks. These would serve as a reminder for me to think of the hardships we had all gone through and the sacrifices we have had to make.

'Rose?' a surprised voice shattered my silence and I realized that whilst my mind had been a little occupied, I had dropped my stealthy silence and made enough noise to alert a nearby guardian. Fortunately though, it was someone that I had missed quite a bit. The statement that goes along the lines of 'You only know what you've had once it's been taken away from you' floated through my mind and I realised just how much I had wanted to see this person.

**APOV**

I sat in my Aunt's chambers with my daughter on my lap and wife to the side of me, whilst my personal guardian, Eddie Castile (Eddie is actually my guardian, but there is a new system at court where sometimes guardians have to go and guard other people, earlier today Eddie was guarding my cousin since one of her guardians had some time off to run an errand but now he was back), stood by the door to the room. I held Jill's hand while tracing unknown shapes on her skin with the pad of my thumb, she still got nervous around my Aunt, Queen Tatiana Ivashkov, after all these years. To be fair, she was only just twenty one, and still a little unused to the fact that she was treated differently since marrying me at the tender age of eighteen, two years after Rose left. I had met Jill whilst on one of my ramblings around St. Vladimir's Academy, wallowing in memories, and we had got talking, found out we had similar interests bar smoking and drinking, they were just mine. We met up three times a week under an Oak tree on the outskirts of the school grounds and formed a friendship which later turned into a relationship, then marriage, then family. We had both been a little concerned about the six year age gap but decided that we shouldn't be kept apart just because of that and as Jill turned eighteen, we took the next step of our relationship and gave ourselves to each other. We then informed our families that we were in love and getting married no matter the consequences. My aunt had surprised us both by giving us her blessing, and we were married by the time Jill was a few weeks away from turning nineteen. She got pregnant the night of the honeymoon which is where the eighteen-month-old girl on my lap came into the equation. She was currently sucking on my finger, I didn't mind, since it was keeping her quiet.

'You know, Adrian, that I have always wanted the best for my family, of course, and I have come to the conclusion that since we have a group of very experienced guardians that have recently come back to Court that Guardian Castile could benefit from some extra training. They have a lot of things that they could teach him.' I nodded, I had known Rose was back, I had heard word of it via excited chatter throughout Court. No doubt, Rose's group of guardians were the ones she was talking about.

'As long as Eddie is happy with the arrangement then I don't see a problem with that, aunt Tatiana.' I caught Eddie's eye and he nodded eagerly.

'Well, that's settled then. You'll just need to talk to Rosemarie and she'll sort something out for him, if I remember correctly, they're quite good friends, there shouldn't be an issue.'

We were ushered out of the room, since Tatiana was quite busy today, and passed a girl in her late twenties walking up to the door. I recognised her as being the other female guardian in Rose's group and let her pass quickly as the paper held in her hand was obviously important.

'Your aunt still gives me the creeps.' Jill muttered, squeezing my hand and kissing Emily on her temple.

'Well then, Mrs Ivashkov, I'll just have to make sure I protect you with my heart, body and soul. Will that do? What do you think, Em? Should I protect your Mummy with everything I've got?' I tickled her sock-covered feet gently and was rewarded with a high pitched giggle from my daughter, her golden-brown ringlets bouncing with the movement. It was possibly the cutest thing I've ever witnessed. These women have turned me into a great big softy. And I wasn't ashamed to admit it.

'I don't need protecting.' Jill pouted, her bottom lip sticking out, looking so much like our daughter when she wasn't given something she wanted or when she was peeved about something. I kissed her, bending down a little and careful not to jostle Emily too much, which got rid of the pout.

'Everyone needs protection from such a handsome fellow like me, My dear. They can't resist my charm, wit and obvious good looks.' I said as I pulled away. 'My two girls especially.' As if she knew what I was talking about, Emily moved in my arms and lifted a small, dainty hand to pat my cheek.

'Silly Daddy.' She shook her head and smiled, reminding me so much of myself that I had to laugh. 'Love you!'

'I love you too, Em.' I kissed her on the forehead, both of us smiling, and then I was momentarily blinded by a small flash of light. Jill had taken a picture of us on her phone.

'I'm sorry, but that was too cute.' She had captured the attention of our daughter and her leaf green eyes.

'Let me see! Let me see, Mummy… Please?' Jill showed her the picture on her phone and Emily giggled again, pointing at herself in the picture and stating loudly that that was her and her funny daddy.

**RPOV**

'Mum?' To both of our surprise, I pulled her into a hug, ignoring my shoulder and my protesting legs from bending down. I still had the _nazari _around my neck and she touched it with a finger when we pulled away.

'I'm glad to see it worked. You look healthy despite the injuries. I can tell that you've changed though, you've become a guardian, and a brilliant one at that. I'm so proud of you, Rose.' Tears almost welled up in my eyes to see so much emotion coming from my mother directed at me.

'I'm not going to lie, it was difficult, mum… I've seen so much, so much pain and loss. It's a wonder I'm quite sane.' I chuckled humourlessly, my mother nodded in understanding, having seen much of that in her days as a guardian.

'You'll learn that it'll make you stronger over time. You carry the memories with you and they fuel your spirit and help you to fight against the strigoi. You've become a mature, beautiful and good natured woman. And that wouldn't have happened if these events hadn't taken place.'

'I know… Thanks, Mum. I'm glad we sorted this out between us, I'm just upset that we've never done this before. I'm sorry.' I reached out with my left hand and held one of hers; we stood looking up at the stars that had become visible, the Court would be abuzz with activity soon now that most people would be done with breakfast, my guardians would be going to the gym and no doubt Eric would be with them. I better go and join them. 'I better go join my group of guardians at the gym, Mum. I know it's terribly uncommon of you, but would you like to come and watch or help, you might learn something.' I laughed, she granted me with a smile. 'And I know for a fact that you shift ends in about five minutes, the other guardian will be here soon. Please?' I still hadn't shaken the feeling that I needed to prove myself to her.

My mother sighed then nodded her head with a little reluctance.

'Fine, but let me at least wait for Guardian Belikov to show up. We'll need to go find your father too, I should be guarding him after this.' I didn't want to wait for Dimitri, but she spoke with finality so I knew I had to wait too. Unless…

'Actually, Mum, I really need to be there right now, can't you wait for Guardian Belikov and then meet me at the Gym with Abe while I go now? There are some things I need to set up.' Not.

'Okay, don't get into any trouble, Rose.' Her voice held a warning and as I walked away, I looked over my shoulder with an innocence that was never present in my face.

'Me? Trouble? I'm shocked you would think so low of me…' She smiled again and I walked off into the night, well day if you're a moroi, but lets not get into the details of it.

Once I got to the gym, I saw my friends already warming up and doing some dynamic stretches. There was a quiet, sombre sort of feeling resting over them and I realised with a growing sadness that Brett used to run the warm up with me, I couldn't help but think again that they would both be sorely missed. Dennis even more for me, he had helped me out of his own will twice now and I would be forever grateful.

'Never fear, Hathaway is here! Outside now, thirty laps.' I know, childish greeting, but I wanted to get their moods up a little, even though mine wouldn't in the near future. They went outside without a questioning thought or word and obeyed my command whilst I sat inside and waited for my mother to turn up. I wonder what's taking her so long, I had been gone fifteen minutes.

Not a minute after I had thought about my mother, the door opened and Janine Hathaway stepped inside along with Ibrahim Mazur and… Dimitri Belikov? Oh shit.

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><p><strong>So, chapter five, love it or hate it?<br>As always, reviews are greatly appreciated and let me know your theories!**

**I'd also like to say thank you to night23 for your lovely reviews, you're a big help!**

**I've decided to leave the last chapter unedited and keep the DPOV how it is, it's all a part of learning how to make my writing better, so if i do another DPOV later i can see if it has changed in standards and if my writing has improved in that particular character area.  
><strong>**Once again, thanks for all the lovely reviews and keep 'em coming!**

**~Ellie Hathaway **


	7. Author's note 2, sorry

Hey guys, so I hate authors notes when other people do them, 'cause I always think there's a new chapter, so I'm really sorry for that.

There's been some freaky voodoo thing going on with my laptop which means I haven't been able to connect to the internet at all, this is the first access I've had in ages, I'm halfway through the next chapter and I will try and get it up as soon as possible, there're also a few reviews containing questions that I will answer when I've got everything sorted out. Thanks for all the reviews, everyone, honestly they are all like little pieces of sunshine that I get to sink my teeth into, so thanks again for those, you're all so lovely! And please, don't be hesitant to ask questions, I love getting 'em 'cause I know you're paying attention to the finer details then instead of skimming them :) Again, I'll have the chapter up as soon as possible, and I have my last exam next Wednesday so that means I will have started my summer holidays, which means more time to write and hopefully, fingers crossed, faster updates.

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts guys, and I know this one was probably as boring as hell, so I love you for reading through this!

Yours,

~ Ellie Hathaway


	8. Love, Love And More Love?

**So, here it is, sorry for the wait, blame my ever problematic laptop :) I won't keep you waiting long so here's the usual: I do not own Vampire Academy, ALL rights go to the lovely Richelle Mead, without whom, none of this would be possible.**

**The Guardians: (These are all the elite guardians by the way, just for future reference, i've included Rose's nicknames for them too.) **

** Alexandru ****'****Alex****'**** Ibanescu,**** Rose Hathaway,**** Dougal ****'****Duggie****'**** McCannon,**** Elly ****'****Elle****'**** Pierce, **Eric Johnson (injured)/**Dennis (deceased),**** Jonathon ****'****Jonny****'**** Poole,**** Cameron ****'****Cam****'**** Novikov,**** Jimmy ****'****Randy****'**** Randa,**** Maxim ****'****Gay Dar****'**** Gaidar, ****Peter ****'****Pete****'**** Filipov,**** Erik ****'****Shinski****'**** Vyshinski,**** Spartak ****'****Tacky****'**** Gabrelovic,**** Robert ****'****Rob****'**** Zacharov, **** Gleb Rebikov (deceased), ****Lewis Kanatova, ****Brett Katko (deceased)**

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><p><strong>6.<strong>

'Boss?… Rose!' Novikov was trying to get my attention and it took all I had to look away from Dimitri stood there with my parents. His eyes scanned the room, looking at the guardians getting warmed up, I took a shaky breath and turned towards Cameron.

'Yes, Cam? What was I doing?' Cameron's pale blonde eyebrows furrowed and his grey irises lightened a little with the bright lights in the gym.

'You were going to get some dummies out for us…'

'Oh yeah, of course.' The walk to the store room wasn't long but I managed to catch my parents walking over to some benches at the side of the room. Without Belikov. Despite my nervousness about not knowing where he was, I waved and shot a smile towards mum and Abe, which they returned then continued a conversation they'd been having. I saw how my dad's head was leant slightly towards my mum's as she looked up at him, with moroi being taller though that was no surprise. They looked cosier than they did when I left, _I wonder what's going on with them… _I proceeded to drag some dummies out of storage, struggling a little when one got caught underneath another, the pile came tumbling down towards me. Sighing, I got to work picking up the ones on the top, having to climb over a few to get to them.

'Need some help with that?' With my concentration elsewhere it scared me half to death when I heard that smooth Russian accent behind me, my hands tightened around the dummy I was holding in a death grip and I pulled. The blonde-haired dummy met little resistance as it swiftly came away from the pile causing me to stumble a little as I used all my force. I stumbled into a warm, chiselled chest. I stood for a heartbeat, enjoying the feel of my back to his chest way too much before that cold-water-feeling drenched me and I jumped away from him.

'We both know you don't want to help me with the dummies, Belikov, so what's the real reason you're here talking to me?'

'Princess Vasilisa wants to speak to you, Rose. Please listen to her, you know it's the darkness. She can't help being a little-'

'Bitch?' Belikov gave me a withering look as if telling me to be an adult about this. Fat chance. 'Can I blame the darkness when I get a little bitchy? Oh no, because everyone forgets that I'm the one taking most of it out of her, even after she turns all that 'bitchiness' on me.'

'Please, Rose, be mature for once in your life, it's not that difficult, you know.' If I didn't have a dummy in my hands I would have shown him how immature I could be. How could he say that I'm not mature when he never forgave himself for things he did when he _wasn't himself_? I had forgiven him, but apparently that wasn't enough.

'Like you were mature about forgiving yourself after the things that happened in Novosibirsk?'

'That was different, Rose, and you know it.'

'It may have been different, it may be on the very opposite end of the spectrum but I still think it plays a part. I knew your love hadn't faded, but you were immature enough to tell me that it had just so I would give up trying to help you get over what you did and find peace with yourself.' That may have been a low blow, but I really didn't have the patience for him today.

'How did you know…?'

'I was back in court for a day when I brought Eric back after his injury, they made me get a check up with the doctors after they found out that I had '_put myself in extreme danger_' to save him.' I did air quotes around the statement, it was my job, I didn't really consider it as putting myself in danger. It was just something that I had to do. Belikov looked at me, confusion riddled in his deep brown eyes. I guess I'll make it a little clearer. 'I got out after a quick check up, because there were guardians everywhere trying to find out what had happened, I figured there would be no one in the gym. Imagine my surprise when I open the doors and see a man punching the living daylights out of a dummy that wasn't standing a chance against him.' As understanding dawned in his eyes I was still caught up in the memory.

_The door to the gym was open slightly when I walked up to it, my latest training I had done taught me to be extra cautious even though I knew there were no enemies inside. What I didn't expect to find was Dimitri Belikov beating the shit out of a dummy. Sweat dripped from his chiselled features, my eyes lowered to find he was without a shirt and only in some loose shorts and trainers. My eyes followed a bead of sweat from the nape of his neck, down the middle of his muscled back until it disappeared at the hem of his shorts. He leaped forward and kicked the dummy, his foot making contact with it's chest area before collapsing on all fours and breathing deeply. His hands were still clenched and it looked as if he were trying to move the floor the way he was pushing against it. _

_I opened the door a little further, peering in through the gap to get a better look at the man that broke my heart, I've got this new regime where I look my issues in the face and tackle them until I'm no longer consumed by them. It still works if I don't look them exactly in the face, right? His back works just as good, god knows I've admired it too many times. _

_For a second I thought I had made a sound, a noise or something that had alerted him to my presence, was I breathing too loud?, because he whispered into the air. _

'_Roza… Oh god, my poor Roza.' _

_I was confused, if he still didn't know that I was stood by the door, why was he saying my name? Well, the name he had given me when he felt extremely affectionate towards me. _

'_I'm so sorry you had to be sent on that mission… It'll be a miracle if you come back alive, if you're still alive.. I can't believe I told you that I didn't love you anymore… Because I do. I love you, my Roza.' Before I could stop myself, I had whispered his name, letting it travel through the air until it got to him, but I was gone before he turned around. I had run away from my problems yet again. _

'I meant it, what I said when I was in the gym. I do still love you, Rose.'

'Too little, too late, Dimitri.' Did he honestly believe I would run back into his arms just because he admitted to me something that he should have told me five years ago after I saved him from being a strigoi? Yes, I think. It seems I am not the naïve one anymore.

'Rose, please. I know we can work it out, you just have to trust me, I was wrong in thinking I could protect you by saying those things to you. I'm sorry.' The liquid velvet of his voice washed over me, his eyes bore deep into my soul and I could almost feel something stirring inside my dormant heart. Maybe we could work out? I mean, it's not as if he blew me off then forgot out me, then, unbeknownst to him, admitted he still loved me when we were in the gym, is it? Jesus Christ. Who does he think he is, thinking he can come back, apologise and expect everything to be hunky dory? Well, not this time, bucko.

'I'm sorry too, Guardian Belikov, sorry that you think you can just waltz back into my life. I have accepted the fact that you are confused about your feeling, saying you don't love me, then saying you do. But the fact is, I don't think I'll ever be able to trust you again on anything other than strict guardian business. You broke me, Dimitri. You broke my trust. You broke our relationship. And you broke my spirit. I worked my damned hardest to be where I am today and I don't think you had anything to do with that.' I spoke nonchalantly, the words that had been floating in my mind for a few years finally bubbling to the surface. The last statement was a blatant lie, he trained me to be what I am, but I wanted him to hurt like I did, that is before I learnt that I could shut my emotions off. Which was quite handy sometimes, I'll have to admit.

'Rose-'

'Thank you, though.' Dimitri's face lost all of that hateful guardian mask and I finally managed to catch him by surprise. His eyes grew confused and a frown grew in between his eyebrows.

'For what?' His cautious manner caused a smirk to grow on my face, I winked at him.

'For breaking up with me. You're quite possibly the main reason why I went on the mission in the first place. If you hadn't pushed me to do that, I would have still been here, still as inexperienced and clumsy as I was before.' I dragged three dummies out the room, past a rigid Dimitri, and into the gym's training area where my fellow elites had finished stretching/running or doing whatever that were doing for a warm up, I wasn't paying that much attention.

'Alex, Elly, Dougal! Can you please sort these guys out into groups and work on some Russian Fist Fighting techniques? I need a word with my mother. Make sure you join in too.' My three musketeers' nodded and split the group up, giving each person a pair of _rukavitsy, _which are, basically, I type of glove used for this type of combat. Once finished with the dummies, Elly, Duggie and Alex will organise some sparring if I'm not finished by then. But I always like to watch the sparring, so I hope I'm finished.

It didn't take me long to realise that Belikov had walked out of the store room and began circling the room, watching the guardians train.

Once I arrived in my mother's presence, I shot a withering glance in her direction.

'What is _he _doing here? I thought he was swapping with you for a shift, not accompanying you!' Abe looked calm and collected, unworried by the fire in my eyes and my seemingly tranquil exterior. Well, you don't expect a mafia guy to be affected by much, do you?

'It seems that Princess Vasilisa has given him a few days off for some reason, I have no idea why, but you shouldn't be biting my head off about this, Rosemarie. He insisted he came, saying it would be beneficial for him to see how you have trained the guardians and how skilful they are now. I have to say, I wanted to come along for that very reason as well, your father wanted to come see if any of them could be hired as his personal guardians.'

'No, no way. They are too good to be put into that kind of position, they've been out in the real world for five long years, they will be incredibly bored and go looking for trouble just to fulfil their need for adventure. I know I don't want to be put back into a normal guarding position after what I've been through.' This last revelation brought a memory rising to the surface of my mind, so as I listened to my mother half heartedly, I remembered a time when all was quiet and I had managed to give a serious think about my future, of course, I hadn't really been all too sure that I would have a future at the time of the conversation.

'_Hey, Ro?' Alexandru lifted our entwined hands to his lips and brushed a soft kiss against my fingers, his breath tickling the back of my hand. _

'_Yes, Alex? Is there something the matter?' We had been sitting in silence for the past half hour and I enjoyed the peace and quiet. I enjoyed the fact that I had this pocket of calm before the next storm. Most people only experience one calm before the storm, they only experience one storm. But the fact that I have experienced enough to last me a life time has made me stronger, yes, a little more paranoid, but stronger nonetheless. _

'_Our lives are never going to be normal again, are they?' He laughed a little, his lips still breathing the ghosts of whispers along my fingers, his eyes being drawn to the electric blue nail polish I had put on earlier, giving myself a little pampering. 'I mean, I knew this was going to be hard… but I think hunting down the strigoi has been the most life changing thing I've ever done. It's changed me, Ro… I'll never be the same.' I used my hand, still laced with his near his face, and gently nudged his face upwards. Alex's eyes met mine, his irises a clear deep blue, the colour of a storm at sea. _

'_Alexandru Ibanescu, I vow to you that we will get out of this alive and we will be changed for the better, yes, I'm not going to sugar-coat it, there will be times where we won't feel like continuing. There have been no other dhampirs to go through what we are now. Which means that we will have to be the ones to tell younger generations the story of our lives and what we have been through. No, our lives will never be the same, but think about what we would have been if this thing had never happened. I doubt that most of us would even know each other, let alone be as close as we are now. I don't regret doing this. I'm proud to have been a part of this group, and we have a long time left to go, there are still six more strigoi hideouts to take out. I believe in every single one of you, never doubt my belief. You have been a rock throughout this and I know our closeness will never diminish, I-' I was forced to quieten myself as the lips that had been caressing my fingers were now on mine, their silkiness running over my mouth and speaking things that couldn't be expressed with words; that were too monumental for even the most complex of languages. Alexandru Ibanescu was telling me that our bond, our friendship, our relationship, our brotherhood run as deep as our very souls. We were connected in ways no one could explain. Fate had brought us together and this was his way of telling me that there was no other. He removed his hand from mine, his lips still connected with mine, and brought both of his hands to my face, caressing my cheeks with the calloused pads of his thumbs. The friction making this feel all the more real and less like a fantasy. This was happening now. This wasn't some kind of unrealistic romance. This was as deep as existence itself, it seemed. I finally let Dimitri go. _

_The calm before the storm, indeed. _

'Rosemarie, are you even listening to me?' Exasperation riddled my mother's voice, sounding more and more like the mother I used to barely know.

'Of course, you were saying that I needed to get back to my guardians because they've started sparring and need me to challenge the winner.'

'No, I wasn't, I knew you weren't-'

'See you in a bit, mum.' I walked away from her and over to the sparring mats, hearing an angry huff behind me.

**APOV (Alexandru)**

I knew Rose would give me some slack because after doing a small Russian Fist Fighting drill, instead of using the dummy like she ordered me to do, I organised my group of four, including me, people into a little Kyusho Jutsu match, setting them against each other, the first to be incapacitated would be out.

I had Jonny, Jimmy and Maxim in my group, they were all skilled fighters so I had my work cut out for me, that was until I knocked Jonny and Maxim out of the mini competition. Then I definitely had my work cut out for me; Jimmy Poole was one of the best guardians in the group of guardians. He was one of the most experienced, already having seven _molnija _tattooed on the back of his neck.

The trick to Kyusho is to target the opposition's Kyusho Points, or Pressure Points, in between everything else. It works if you're fighting against other guardians to get them in most of their Kyusho Points, unfortunately for us, strigoi are stronger than dhampirs meaning less effective Kyusho Points, but the ones that definitely worked were the pressure points on the head, to incapacitate or knock them out. There is, if you put enough force into it, the ability to kill an enemy with the Kyusho Point in their head but there are only three ways to kill a strigoi. Using their Kyusho Point to your advantage would mean stunning them for a few seconds and when you're in a strigoi battle, a few seconds is the difference between life and death for a dhampir.

'You ready, Jimmy?'

'Bring it, Alex.' I sidestepped his oncoming punch and flipped over his head, my feet pushing down on his shoulders so I could get higher into the air. I conducted a 180 degree turn in the air and landed on Jimmy's shoulders, wrapping my legs around his neck to stable myself, obviously not tight enough to strangle him, I mean, this was only training. Unfortunately, I got distracted by Elly yelling at me not to show off with my gymnastics and Jimmy managed to pull me off his shoulders and slam me into the mat. I rolled before he could straddle my chest and managed to bring my hand up and slam it into his back, as he was distracted I brought my other hand round and pressed hard just above the crease of his elbow, incapacitating his arm, rendering it useless for at least three minutes.

'Damn it.' He growled, his voice fierce. Without his arm to use, it was easy to get him down on the mat and to 'stake' him in the chest.

'Good match, Jimmy. Remember that even though your arms are terribly useful in a fight, they can also be one of your biggest weaknesses.'

'Right you are, Alex, good match. Be sure to not lose concentration next time, though.' He nodded to me, rubbing his arm a little and trying to get feeling back into it.

Rose had developed this system where each of us would point out a weakness in the other partners fighting style which we would then work on in our own training and be better and stronger for the next time. By using this, Rose had showed us how to be unstoppable and relentless in a conflict. She'd also taught us how to use our sharp tongues and quick wittedness in a fight, trying to distract the strigoi from the battle. Many people believe that Rose just throws random insults at the strigoi but what she's really doing is distracting them to make the fight easier for her.

We gathered at the sparring mats, seeing that Rose was still speaking to her mother, and Elly took over organising the spar partners.

'Alex, you don't mind taking Rose on do you?' She winked at me, knowing that I still harboured feelings for my boss and one of my best friends. She knew I would do anything to get close to Rose, luckily, I was not on her bad size so I could be in close proximity. Especially with our bond that we shared.

'Not at all, she needs to be shown her place once in a while, I think she's due for an ass kicking.' No sooner had the words left my mouth that Rose walked up to us and smacked me on the back of my head.

'I'm due for no such thing. Remember that I am your boss, Ibanescu, I can dole out punishments for no particular reason, if I feel like it, anyway.' I shivered, her voice always did effect me, the sultry, honey-like tones wrapped around me. I wished I could hold her in my arms again.

'Yes, Boss-Lady-Ma'am.' I clicked my heels together and saluted her, my back as straight as an ironing board.

'Shut up, Ibanes-CHOO!' She mimed sneezing as she got to the last part of my name, earning an eye roll from me and a few titters from her crowd.

'Rose, do you mind if I spar with you?' Too caught up in my conversation with Rose, Belikov's voice came out of no where. I stepped closer to her, not in front of her though, she hates it when someone does that. She's not vulnerable.

'Actually, she's my sparring partner for today, Belikov, I reckon you'd be better taking Shinski on, he'll go a little easier on you than Rose would.' I said, nodding over to where Erik Vyshinski stood with Elly and Maxim. He nodded back at me, confirming that he would be okay with it. Of course he would. With Rose, Belikov would be flat on his ass within a minute, at least with Vyshinski he'll last a couple of minutes longer. I'm trying to spare him his pride. No doubt, being the perfectionist that he is, he'll want to start training with us to get better, I heard we're already getting the addition of Edison Castile.

'But-'

'Belikov, really, you would not have any dignity left after facing me, at least with Vyshinski you'll last at least a minute longer than you would with me. I've become stronger since you last saw me, and I don't particularly want to hurt you. Much.' Ro spoke in a low voice but I couldn't help hiding a laugh with a fake cough after she finished speaking. Belikov shot me a look and I shrugged my shoulders while turning round. Rose tied her blonde hair into a white hair tie and pushed her fringe out of her face, giving her a clear view on all angles, especially her peripherals, after all these years she's learnt how much I like to play with my opposition and hover just in the edge of their vision.

'Come on, Ro, we'll get this party started, shall we?' She winked at me and jogged to the mat, foregoing proper stretches and just doing a few dynamic ones whilst she made her way to the mat. With the almost constant working out that she does, she's thin but curvy and almost always has her muscles warmed up.

**DPOV**

Watching Rose and Ibanescu fight was like watching a film on fast forward, the speed at which they moved could almost rival a strigoi. My eyes never drifted from the fight yet I still didn't see how the score had ended up Rose: 5, Ibanescu: 1. And this was only after a minute and a half. With ordinary guardians, scores like that would be seen only after around seven minutes of fighting. And I say ordinary because all of these guardians were more than that, they had been moulded into extraordinary guardians. And I had no doubt in my mind that that was down to Rose. I did notice how Ibanescu ducked a little this time and how he managed to catch Rose in the stomach.

'Point?' He asked her.

'Point.' She conceded, and then went on to ask, her breathing pattern still completely normal, 'Point?'

'Point.' He nodded. Wait! When did Rose get a point, all I saw was Ibanescu ducking, Rose didn't manage to catch him, did she?

'This is incredibly confusing.' I noticed Janine standing next to me and Ibrahim nodding in agreement on the other side of her.

'I'm glad we're on the same page. I thought it was just me. They are moving incredibly fast though, aren't they? I didn't even catch Rose getting that last point. They were now at 7-2. And I had missed another point.

'She's become an amazing fighter. I think she has surpassed everyone by miles, even Arthur Schoenberg and he was the best fighter the dhampirs had seen in decades, possibly a century. Who knew our genes would produce this?' She teased, directing the last part towards Ibrahim.

'I always knew she'd be a little spitfire. I just wish I was around to see most of it.' He walked away after that and after an apologetic glance at me, Janine followed him. I am pleased that they got their relationship back on track, Rose deserves to have her parents together. She deserves the best.

'Dead!' I heard a triumphant shout, and saw that Rose had 'staked' Ibanescu, their fight lasting little over four minutes. I blinked, astonished. I looked over at the other guardians and saw that they looked unfazed, as if this were a normal occurrence.

'Fancy a go?' Vyshinski had made his way over to me and all I could do was nod, fearing my voice would shake in slight fear of what was to come against this elite group of guardians.

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><p><strong><em>So, i hope i confused you all with Rose's thoughts in the APOV<br>As always, leave me a review with your thoughts and theories on the things going on in the story  
>Again, i'm sorry for the wait and if there were any grammatical mistakes in this chapter, i'm working on a smaller keyboard than usual, so i don't have enough space to move around on. <em>**

**_I also fear of becoming one of those people that pester for reviews, i like to focus more on the fact that i actually have people reading, a review is just an extra piece of sunnyness, but i have been getting a lot of alerts telling me that quite a few people are reading but not leaving reviews. You don't have to if you don't want to, but it would be greatly appreciated, and i do always reply to questions that need to be answered, not ones that will be answered within the next chapter because then it's just a waste of writing time. But yeah, whatever, please yourself :) i'm here for your entertainment. _**

**_Yours,_**

**_~Ellie Hathaway_**


	9. Rules? Badasses Don't Need Rules

**So, i hope you're all having a good summer! here's another post for you to read, everyone, thank you all for the lovely reviews, they make my day. You're all stars, and you've inspired me to write a few one-shots completely irrelevant to this story but still VA. They'll be up soon hopefully along with another chapter of The Elite. **

**So, usual disclaimer, i do not own Vampire Academy, that belongs to the lovely Richelle Mead, without whom none of this would be possible.**

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><p><strong>7.<strong>

**DPOV**

'For the sake of it being you that I'm sparring with, we'll make some rules.' They didn't normally have rules except how to get points? But I though every guardian sparred with the rule that you can't punch each other in the head? If so, then I'm glad they're making rules for me. I flexed my arms a little and stood opposite Vyshinski, hoping to deter him by showing off my muscles since he was quite a little guy. I knew to expect the unexpected, but I should probably seriously think about that now that I was facing one of Rose's guardians.

'You don't normally have rules?' The low tone to my voice made it impossible for anyone to hear the slight tremble in my voice.

'Well, there is one. Even though we could punch anyone anywhere when we're sparring, we had to make a rule that any distractions of a sexual nature could not be permitted. Some of us just didn't know how to keep our hands off each other did we?' His eyes flickered to somewhere outside of the sparring area, but were back too fast for me to decipher who the comment was directed towards.

'And that's the only rule that you guys have? You're allowed to target the head? None of the guardians practice that.'

'We're not normal guardians. Right, I'm going to say for this sparring match that I am not allowed to use any illegal moves on you, I won't hit you on your head, I won't break any bones etc.' I gulped a little, I had no doubt in my mind that he knew just how much pressure it would take to break a bone, and even though he said he wouldn't break any I couldn't think about what he was like in a real fight. He looked deadly, even when he was stood there with a calm posture and his tranquil body language. 'You, however, can do whatever you want, but please, no acts of a sexual nature, I'm not inclined that way.'

'But I'm not… I don't… what?'

'Relax, Belikov, you're not going to be able to fight when you're as stiff as an ice lolly. Right, get ready.'

I heard a woman in the background, Elly Pierce, come closer to the mats. She waited a second, taking in both of our stances, then said one word.

'Begin.'

I wasn't an idiot, at least, I don't think so. Which is why I knew that I had to keep this as defensive as I could on my side, I would surely last longer when on the defensive than if I jumped straight into the fight and attacked offensively. I stood my ground and planted my feet, watching Vyshinski with keen and watchful eyes. Except, he wasn't there.

The first punch hit me from behind and I swear it had the force of a freight train, my lower back tensed and pain shot through it. I thought he said he'd cut me a little slack? I spun and tried to block his next punch, my forearm pressing against his and knocking it out of the way, but before I could blink, he was gone again disappearing even from my peripherals. I was pushed down onto the mats from a force coming down from above. Vyshinski forced me to my knees, landing behind me. I leant forwards, ignoring the pain from my collapsed legs and pressed my hands against the floor which gave me enough leverage to lift both of my legs and kick out behind me. The move I had just carried out had happened at an amazingly high speed, but he still managed to grab a hold on one of my ankles and throw me up into the air. Throwing a six foot seven male into the air is no easy feat. I don't know how he managed it, but he had the strength of an ox and the speed of a sprinting cheetah, anticipating my every move whereas I could not pinpoint anything that he did, it was as if he were materialising and dematerialising right in front of my eyes. Now if all dhampirs were supposed to have heightened senses and skills then how gifted must these guardians have become? I knew I was not seeing all of the skills they had mastered, nor the full strength of my opponent. Ibanescu said I would last longer with Vyshinski than I would have done with Rose, which brought me to the conclusion that Rose must be quite possibly the most amazing guardian the world has seen. A voice cut through my thoughts.

'Belikov, what are you still doing on the floor? Get the hell up and fight him. This is a sparring match, not a walk on the beach.' No it definitely was not a walk on the beach, Rose, thank you for that observation.

I jumped up trying to avoid a fist aimed for my right shoulder, I twisted away to the left. Breathing heavily I took another blow, this time to my stomach. The force winded me, but I stood tall, deciding that the defensive thing wasn't really doing anything for me. I curled my fist and aimed for his shoulder, I could have sworn he was distracted when I initiated the punch but before my fist met it's target, my wrist was enclosed in a strong hand and twisted. So much so that I was now facing in the other direction with Vyshinski holding onto my wrists with one of his hands and curling my arms so they lay almost flat against my back. I was forced to my knees and then onto my front. His knees jammed into my sides and I knew I would be getting plenty of bruises from this. I could do nothing to stop him as he brought his free hand up against my back, over where my heart was. I hadn't even managed to land a hit.

'Dead.' He released me and I rolled over, attempting to sit up, my back had taken quite a beating. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I believe I just had my ass handed to me. Not literally of course, that would just be weird.

'Okay everyone, since the entertainment's over, who's next?' Rose asked, rubbing her hands together and giving them all an evil smile.

'No way, Hathaway, I don't think any of them want to take you on right now, you're on form. Even if you've only just taken your sling off, you've got to love your wonderful healing body.' Elly muttered, tying her hair up and motioning for Guardian Lewis Kanatova to join her up on the mats. She turned her attention to me, still on the floor. 'Can you move, please? We need the mat.' I stared at her in disbelief, how can she expect me to move after that? I wiped my forehead with the sleeve of my shirt, the sweat soaking into it.

'Belikov, it'll hurt more tomorrow, so I suggest you move while you still can.' Rose stood to the side of me, holding her arm out, I began to protest thinking she wouldn't be able to help me up. 'Oh, please.' She scoffed, gripping the top of my arm and yanking me up into a standing position. She walked me off the mat to come and sit down on one of the bleachers along with Ibanescu and Vyshinski.

As we got closer and I sat down, letting out a breath of air, Vyshinski turned towards me, looking as if he only just walked into the room, no heavy breathing, no sweat, no nothing. I was baffled, these were truly the most deadliest guardians I had come across. And Rose was one of them.

'You need to work on your reflexes. You were slow out there, Belikov.' What was this? Pick on Dimitri day? I was about to give him a piece of my mind when Rose started to speak, a first aid kit in her hands.

'I introduced this thing where, after each sparring match with an opponent, we tell them what their weakness was during the fight, then they can go away and work on it and come back stronger next time. Take off your shirt.'

'That's a good idea, Rose, but I can't find anything wrong with Vyshinski's performance… And why?' I didn't have a problem training with my shirt off in front of people, it keeps me cooler, but why did she want me to take it off?

'Well, I can. Vyshinski, I know that with the longer stakes we use, the strigoi can be killed though the back, but for training's sake, I suggest you make sure you 'stake' the person in the front, there is room for error if you do it through their back and the strigoi could simply be injured and not dead. Through the front. It's the only way to make sure they're dead. Apart from if their head is rolling on the floor or they've turned to ash. But please, from the front.' Vyshinski nodded, thanking Rose with his eyes, then sauntered off back towards the training area, egging Elly on as he did. 'And as for your question, I don't particularly want to ogle you, if that's what you were implying. I need to bandage your sides to give them a bit of support, you'll be getting some killer bruises.' I nodded half heartedly, noticing Ibanescu was laughing softly behind her.

'You're looking good today, Rose.' He noted, walking behind me so he could speak to her properly.

'Better than you, Alex.'

'You wound me, Ro. My heart can't take it.' I noticed Rose's face colour a little, as if she were embarrassed about something, I couldn't put my finger on it though, and with Ibanescu openly flirting with her I was getting a little uncomfortable. Rose picked something out of the first aid box and held a bandage in her hands.

'Are you going to take your shirt off, or not?' I sighed, but then decided to take the opportunity. Ibanescu was slimmer than me, meaning his muscles, though probably stronger than mine, weren't as noticeable. I pulled my shirt off carefully, my arms a little tender, and put it down beside me.

**RPOV**

I could practically smell the testosterone. If it wasn't the testosterone then it was Belikov, he was sweating quite a bit. Not that I had a problem with it, I think it's quite hot actually, but I'd never let him know that. I held the ointment and the bandage in my hands going to sit behind Belikov. I shoved Alex out the way and told him to go and oversee the sparring session since Elly wasn't in the audience, it wasn't that the other's couldn't handle it, I just didn't like it when Alex openly flirted with me. It made me uncomfortable which was why I was a little embarrassed he was doing this in front of Belikov.

'You took quite a beating out there. It was strange seeing you in that position.' I think that not being able to see his face made it easier to speak with him. Secretly, I was a little glad that Vyshinski beat Belikov. And hard. I think, after all this time, Dimitri had become a little cocky about his position, with the other guardians and I back here hopefully it'll change and he'll realise that he isn't the god that most people had thought him to be. Myself included.

'Yes, I wasn't aware you had all improved this much, and to this standard. I mean, I watched the videos and the training sessions you sent back to Court, but that was against each other. Now, facing them myself, I can see just how much you've all grown.'

'We have come a long way, I'm proud of all of them, Spartak in particular, he took the death of Brett pretty hard. Still does. They had grown extremely close out there, almost like brothers…' I thought about it a second longer. We had all become family really, in our own way, we teased, fought and laughed together as a family. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. 'We're all bonded together in a way, some of us as siblings, sometimes even romantically.' I said, thinking of Elly and Erik. I knew what to look for in their faces and their smiles, there was a connection there, much like mine and Dimitri's had been. It's just a shame that this society frowns upon things like that. There were a few moments of silence as I poured some soothing ointment onto my hands and rubbed it into his sides, trying to prevent a more serious kind of bruising and discomfort. I want to face him in the sparring ring, but not until he's perfectly healthy and almost up to my standards. What can I say? I want to beat him in the ring, is that so wrong? I smirked a little as I pressed slightly harder into his sides and he responded by squirming a little.

'Like you and Ibanescu?' My movements paused and I took a deep breath.

'What did you say?' Hands leaving his tanned skin, I picked up the bandage and began wrapping it around his torso, kind of like a cummerbund. I would secure it with a safety pin once I was done, even though a safety pin would not be my weapon of choice, Belikov shouldn't be as bold as to ask me about Alex when I was in a position of power, should he?

'You and Ibanescu? Are you _romantically _involved?' The way his mouth sneered the words caused a little shock inside me, I knew he could be like this, I'd seen it a lifetime ago when Dimitri was threatening Victor Dashkov in his cell, but it still affected me to see a caring man sound so… _evil. _

'I don't think it's your place to ask something like that, is it, Belikov?' I fixed the bandage in place with a safety pin from the first aid box and stood up, planning on joining the other guardians over by the mats, when I felt a hand close around my arm.

'I have a right, Rose. And stop calling me Belikov, it doesn't sound right coming from your lips, it's Dimitri, please.' He pleaded, his hand closing tighter.

'You have no right. You lost it when you ran to my best friend instead of me, the person that loved you. You are simply an unfortunate acquaintance now. Let go.' His grip only got tighter, if he wasn't careful he would be visiting a world of pain. Jeez, where was the reserved Dimitri I once knew?

'You know why I didn't come to you, Rose. I hurt you too much.'

'And I forgave you but you hurt me even more when you ran to my friend. I would have done anything for you, Dimitri, you broke our relationship.'

'Everything all right over here?' Elly had come up behind us after her sparring match with Kanatova, mainly because the water bottles were over here, but I could see her looking pointedly at Dimitri's hand around my arm.

'Fine.' He said stiffly. 'I was just leaving.' And with that said Dimitri gathered his shirt and stood up, wincing a little as he started walking out of the gym. Once the door closed behind him I noticed the silence and saw that everyone was just looking at me. Which is a little freaky.

'Get back to training. I want you all in top condition for the _molnija _ceremony next week.' Elly raised her eyebrows at me, nodding to the door, knowing I would want to go outside to cool off for a bit. 'I'm going for a smoke.'

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><p>'Little Dhampir! You smoke?' I had been outside for ten minutes, enjoying the slight breeze when Adrian walked up to me with a few other additions.<p>

'Adrian, Eddie, Jill and… who's this?' I said nodding to each of them but then noticing the little girl in his arms giggling softly as Adrian's fingers tickled her side. Her arms hung around his neck and one of her hands was wrapped in his t-shirt, pulling on it gently. The girl was like a carbon copy of Jill, except for her eyes and the wave of her hair. I could see Adrian in her smile too. Her blonde waves were pulled into pigtails and she had on a light pink summer dress.

'Her name's Emily, she's our daughter.' I stomped on my cigarette, not wanting Emily to inhale any of the smoke, she could probably smell it but at least I did that much, and smiled at Jill and Adrian.

'She's beautiful.' I looked into her leaf green eyes and chuckled. 'Hello Emily, my name's Rose.'

'Like the flower?' I noticed she had dimples when she smiled.

'Exactly like the flower.' I tapped on her nose once with my index finger and she unhooked one of her arms from her daddy and gripped onto my finger, her eyes wide and playful. 'So you got married?'

'We did, yes.' Jill stepped forward to hug me, her arms wrapping around my shoulder, I eagerly returned the gesture, one armed. 'It's good to see you safe, Rose. God knows you deserve it.'

'It is good to see you, Little Dhampir. Eddie here has been pining after you.' I raised my eyebrows towards Eddie, who was standing behind the little family with a smile on his face.

'Welcome back, Rose. It's been thoroughly boring without you.' I laughed and pulled him into my arm, Emily had a strong grip.

'Everything's boring without me.' I winked at him then released my hold on him.

'It's really good to see you, Rose. And I've heard you've become the best guardian we've ever seen.'

'I'm not sure about that, all of the other guardians I took with me are probably better than me, they're all amazing.' I felt a tug on my arm and noticed Emily squirming in Adrian's arms, her wide eyes fixed on me, she was being extremely cute. Jill noticed me looking.

'Want to hold her? She doesn't bite, well, not much anyway. Just don't insult her daddy.'

'That's going to be pretty hard, you know.'

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><p>After speaking to Adrian, Eddie and Jill we made plans to go to dinner in a couple of days with Adrian promising he would relay the information to Chris. I was glad that I would get the chance to catch up with them and thought about how mature Adrian had become whilst I filed some paperwork from the mission, updating people's files and whatnot. I'm pretty sure none of them would have trouble getting jobs after this, that is, if any of them want guarding jobs. I would imagine a few of them would have a little trouble adjusting to normal guardian society after all the excitement. I pushed Elly's folder into the correct place in the P section and moved onto Eric Johnson's file, pausing to look over the basic information. He was English, grew up in Scarborough and had a sister and mother living there still. As with most, if not all, dhampir families, the moroi father had left the children at an early age. I had spoken to Eric about this once and he had told me that his father had been one of the lesser known Drozdov's and he hardly remembered him.<p>

As I looked at the picture of the young-looking Eric taken five years ago, before the mission, I decided that everyone's passport-type images should be redone since a lot of them had changed in appearance. Mainly scars that could be used as an identification point and the general look that all of them had grown into over the years. The look of a person that had been through many difficult things and was closed off to those except the ones that knew them well. I know I had changed, not a change to do with my hair or my almost weathered look that most guardians had, but you could see in my eyes that I had been through something that I hoped no other person would have to go through. Being twenty three made this look almost out of place and too old for me.

I sighed, made a few changes to Eric's report and filed it into the J section, shutting the cabinet and flopping onto the chair nearest to me. I had been given my own office. Crazy, right? I didn't really want one but it was nice having somewhere where I could talk to someone in private, and somewhere where I could just think without being barged in on. Granted, it was a small office, but an office nonetheless.

After around thirty minutes, I stood, stretched and left the room, locking the door behind me. I was about to walk through the hallway leading to guardian quarters when I remembered that I didn't have a clue where I would be staying. It would have probably been given to another guardian, they would not have saved it for me since there was a more than likely chance that I would not be coming back. Instead of walking to the guardian quarters, I turned and walked in the general direction of the main reception desk, nodding to a few people I saw on the way. Some even gave me pats on the back and words of thanks, which I had absolutely no idea how to respond to, why would they be thanking me?

'Excuse me, would you happen to know where I'll be moving into? I was about to walk into the general guardian quarters and realised that I had no idea where I would be staying.' The moroi receptionist gave me a bright smile, saying that she could find out for me.

A minute later, she was frowning slightly at the computer in front of her, clicking away with her mouse.

'I don't understand why you were walking towards the general guardian quarters, Guardian Hathaway, you're still listed as being in your charge's section of court. You remember the room you had in the Dragomir wing before the mission?' They hadn't moved me? This is an interesting turn of events, I would not be able to avoid Lissa if I was staying a couple of rooms away from her. And why had she said my 'sanctioned charge'? I have no charge, unless they hadn't thought to change that either. Which means that I will stay in that room for the night. I was not going to be particularly petty about this, but tomorrow, the Queen shall be getting a visit.

Ten minutes later, I was walking to the room with my luggage in one hand and the key in the other. On opening the door I observed that the room looked exactly the same, bar a few overnight bags, another bed and an extra person.

Apparently, for the time being, I was to be sharing a room with Alex.

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><p><strong>I have to admit that i am quite partial to Alex, along with Vyshinski, i reckon i'll write a bit about him and Elly at some point, possibly as a sub plot... That is if you want me to, it's up to you. Or maybe that can be made into another story to go along with this. But i'm thinking ahead here, i need to get this one finished first and i don't know yet if there is going to be a sequel, maybe i'm getting a little ahead of myself.. <strong>

**I'd also like to apologise once more for the lateness of the last chapter, i'll try not to make a habit of it.  
>As always, review, leave your comments and theories, i'm always happy to hear them and i do reply to a few now and again if i feel like answering a few questions or clarifying something. Thanks a lot for the reviews, once again! You're amazing!<strong>

**~ Ellie Hathaway **

**P.S, if there are any spelling mistakes, please point them out to me, i assure you i won't be offended! i strive to make my grammar close to perfect so it makes it easier to read. **


	10. Pillow Fights And Actual Fights?

**I'm a horrible excuse for a writer, I know, I shouldn't have left it this long to update, I'm terribly sorry. I'm not going to bore you all with excuses but I will say that I have been sick with Tonsillitis these past couple of weeks. Anyway, thanks to everyone that reviewed the last post, and I hope you all like this one! See you at the end of the post.**

**As always, Vampire Academy belongs to the lovely Richelle Mead, without whom none of this would be possible. **

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><p><strong>8<strong>_**.**_

I stood in the doorway for a moment, Alex looked back at me from his position on one of the beds, before dumping my things on the other and meeting his gaze.

'Are you lost, Alex?' I began unpacking a few of my things, only the stuff I would need for tomorrow as I knew I wouldn't be staying here long after I go visit the queen. I'll get moved from this room, she owes me at least that.

'Not that I know of, Ro. It looks like we're rooming, huh? Just like the good ol' days.' He chuckled and sat up on his bed, leaning his back against the wall, supporting himself with a pillow.

'Not for long, Alex, I'm going to the queen in the morning, I'm not staying anywhere near Lissa. Since I've been refusing to visit her, I'm pretty sure she'll come and find me, unless she's changed that much and got other people doing everything for her.'

'Don't be such a spoilsport, Trigger. I'm sure we can manage, besides, we've got at least seven people in the same room before, we just have more space this time.' I set to the task of removing the essentials from my bag. I placed my stake on the bedside table and took my two pistols out from the bottom of the bag so I could put them in the drawer of the bedside table, this would mean easy access for me if anything happened while I slept.

'Yes, well this isn't really the same situation as that, is it? Anyway, since you're here, I wanted to ask you if you'd want to train for a bit with me tomorrow, you're really the only one that can keep up with me apart from Elly and Dougal and I don't know where they are. So, what do you say?' I took my bag off the bed and put it over by the desk near the closest window then walked over to where Alex was sitting on his bed and dropped down opposite him, laying my legs over his.

'I thought you were going to the Queen in the morning?' He said, his warm hands came to rest on my shins and I leant back onto the footboard.

'I am, but I thought maybe after? Besides, I haven't trained with my swords in a while. And I need to train with something that can hit back, I know you won't go easy on me.'

'When have I ever gone easy on you?' He teased and a smile broke out on his face. I had always loved Alex's smile, it was one of the things that made him so attractive and one of the things that had enabled me to forget about Dimitri when I needed to.

'I don't know, I never really notice. It's all the same anyway, I always win.' I smirked.

'Oooh_, Burn._' I threw my head back and laughed out loud at the mock shock on his face but stopped abruptly when I felt a large feather pillow hit me right round the face.

'Oh, don't resort to violence, your ego will recover, it needs putting down once in a while or you won't be able to get through the door!' He only smiled sweetly and hit me in the face again. 'Right, that's it, challenge accepted.' I jumped off the bed, pulling our tangled legs apart and grabbed the pillow off of the other bed.

'You know, Ro, I don't really think-' My pillow hit his face and he grimaced, spitting a feather from his mouth. 'Well, really? There's no need to hit _that _hard, I'm a delicate person and I have a condition…' He leaped towards me and forced us both onto the ground while we continued throwing the pillows at each other, laughing all the time. I had missed being this free, we never really had much time for fun and I only agreed to start something with Alex because he wouldn't give up in the first year, alas, that's all over on the relationship side but we still remained close. We knew a lot about each other, what do you expect?

'ROSEMARIE HATHAWAY.' The door burst open and through a mass of floating feathers I made out that a woman was stood there. A woman with light blonde hair, deep jade green eyes and a long, floor-length satin dress. Vasilisa Dragomir.

'Oh man, can't I catch a break? It's almost time for bed, Princess, can't we talk some other time?' I moaned sarcastically but also a little truthfully as I was quite tired. She narrowed her eyes at me before taking a deep breath and letting it out in a huge, _whooshing _exhale.

'I would prefer it if we were to talk now, Rosemarie.' _It's Rose, bitch. _I looked over at Alex who was surprisingly calm and collected having considered the pillow fight we'd just participated in.

'Don't look at me, this is your fight, Boss. I'm just here to look pretty.' He winked at me. Sometimes he was just a little _too _cocky for his own good, I would have to sort that out some time soon. And it's going to be painful since he's throwing me to the dogs right now. Big, growling, beastly Alsatians in the form a tall, angelic-looking princess.

'Thanks for the everlasting support, my faithful friend.' I muttered dryly and looked back towards Vasilisa who was looking a little… _nervous? _'Are you sure we can't just wait until morning?'

'Please, Rose… I think we have some things to sort out and I would really like it if you were cooperative.' Damn it to hell. There was still a part of me that couldn't resist her, you don't go through as much as we have together then forget about it all completely. Though I wish that it could be forgotten about, I'd have a hell of a lot less problems in life, but I probably wouldn't be as good a guardian as I am now without it all. _Stupid vicious circle_. Chuckling slightly, I nodded my head and stood up, brushing some feathers from my clothing.

'Okay, but if things start getting ugly I want you to know that I am going to take no responsibility for it as it probably won't be my fault.'

I followed Vasilisa out of mine and Alex's room and out into the corridor, but what confused me was the fact that we didn't continue on to what I knew was her room. We stopped in front of the door to the room next to mine and Vasilisa rapped on the wood twice before being granted entrance. The door was almost opened immediately and I should have guessed, really. Dimitri stood gesturing for us to go inside, Vasilisa immediately followed his gestures but I couldn't bring myself to step into the room. I knew by hesitating that I was showing a weakness in my barriers but I don't know how clearly I would be able to think whilst I was in a room that was filled with Dimitri's possessions and scent. But I squared my shoulders, stuck my chin out defiantly and followed his gestures into the room as he smiled at me slightly, I nodded my head as I passed. I surveyed my surroundings, as every guardian should, and almost laughed aloud at the book sitting on his bedside table, he was never going to get enough of those silly Westerns was he? I wished that we were on better terms so that I could go and collapse on his bed and tease him about his reading taste, but I was here for business and we weren't those people anymore, no matter how much we wish we were. I had grown up and he had moved on. Or so I had guessed, I had seen Tasha Ozera in passing earlier, neither of us stopping to chat, but I had a sense that she was here because of Dimitri, and I was glad he had found someone that could give him everything he'd ever wanted.

'Dimitri, you can go now, I'm sure we'll be perfectly fine in here, we do have Guardian Vespa stood outside along with Guardian kapowski and I'm sure Christian will come running if anything goes wrong.' Did she think I was going to _murder _her or something? Jeez, I'm mad but I'm not that mad, and besides, violence isn't really the answer.

'Right you are, Princess, be sure to alert me if anything happens.' Dimitri spun round like an army general mid-march and left the room, closing the door softly behind him. And no, I did not ogle his ass, though who wouldn't?, I stood looking at Vasilisa and waited for her to speak, because there is no way I'm going to say anything without hearing an apology first. I deserve at least that much. So we looked at each other, brown eyes to green, in the silence of Dimitri Belikov's room. By the time Vasilisa started speaking I had moved onto the floor with my back against the bed trying desperately not to fall asleep without hearing this apology first.

'Rosemarie… Rose, I was hoping we could find some sort of middle ground, we've both done things we shouldn't have-'

'No, _you've _done things you shouldn't have, what the hell have I done?'

'You left, Rose!' She came and sat down in front of me, taking care that her dress didn't get caught on anything, even if it did I don't doubt that there were at least ten more dresses that looked exactly like that one in her wardrobe. I can only imagine was Christian said when he saw all her clothes.

'After _you _told me to, don't try and pin this on me! If you hadn't have told me to leave then I wouldn't have gone.'

'How could you even take that and think that I meant it? Why would I want you to go away?' Her eyes grew glassy a little before she seemed to wipe it away, leaving her face bare, kind of like our guardian masks but something much more impenetrable.

'I don't know, Princess!' I drew my knees up to my chest and groaned while resting my forehead on top of them. 'Why would you want me to go away? We've been through so much together, but because Dimitri,' I almost hissed his name. 'needed help I had to take a backseat?'

'He needed me! I was the only one that was able to help him!'

'I needed you, Lissa! I needed you and you chose him over me! Do you know how much that hurt? I have always been there for you, and the one time I needed you more than anyone else you couldn't see past your need to make yourself better to see that I was in pain! Yes, Dimitri needed someone with him after that but I needed someone too and forgive me for thinking that that someone was you.' We stared at each other, neither of us breathing as the truth hung between us like an elephant in the room.

'You could have told me.' She muttered finally.

'I didn't feel as if I could. Which is extremely upsetting.' I pushed the blonde hair out of my eyes and saw Lissa follow the movement, frowning a little as she came to rest on my hair.

'You thought you couldn't tell your best friend how you really felt?' She moved forwards to sit next to me, her back against the bed, I unconsciously stiffened. Something didn't feel right.

'You weren't being my best friend then… best friends don't tell someone that they could 'ruin everything' if they didn't walk away. You hurt me, Lissa. I don't like being hurt, especially by someone I trust with my whole life.'

'You said 'trust'… as in present tense. Is that true, Rose?' Lissa turned her head towards me, hope alight in her jade green eyes. I took a deep breath and let go of it in a fast _whoosh._

'I don't know anymore. I mean that, it's just that… ugh! This is so hard. I want to forgive you, Lissa but I can't and I don't think I will be able to for a very long time.' I closed my eyes and leant my head back against the bed, letting it sink a little into the covers.

'At least I know that you're going to try to forgive me one day… Rose, I- What I'm trying to say is that I'm… I,' Lissa looked frustrated, a frown appeared in between her perfectly sculptured eyebrows. 'Look, Rose, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I did, it was me that drove you away and I was being completely immature about the whole situation so, I'm sorry.' Her hand rested on my shoulder for a second before she removed it and stood up to leave. She looked back at me once before walking out the door, her emotions were all over the place and I couldn't understand what she was feeling at all so I did what I hadn't done in five years and opened the bond completely. I had gotten used to only glimpsing to make sure that I took some of the darkness away to stop her from going completely crazy, but I hadn't fully opened it in years. And what I found shocked me after that little speech she just gave. _That cold hearted bitch! _She wasn't feeling any remorse at all! There was something she was trying to do but needed me to help so she thought she should 'apologise'?

'Are you actually kidding me?' I stood up to follow her out of the door, she was stood with some of her guardians, I noticed that Dimitri wasn't one of them. 'You've just lied to my face, _Princess_, what the hell is wrong with you?' I shouted, my voice growing louder by the second. 'You're a joke! You can't get away with anything around me, you do realise that, don't you? The bond? Remember that?' She looked at me calmly.

'Well, what else would you have suggested, Miss Hathaway?' Her guardians inched forward a little and I heard a door open to the left.

'That's _Guardian Hathaway _to you, Princess. And I would have suggested that you tell me the truth.'

'Rose, Lissa? What's going on?' Christian walked up to us and stood looking between his girlfriend and myself.

'Ask Princess _Bitch _over here.' As soon as the words had left my mouth the guardians on either side of Vasilisa approached me. I stood my ground as one of them stood in front of me and the other one restrained my hands behind my back.

'What the hell? Guys, this is ridiculous!' Christian stepped forwards towards Vasilisa. 'Why are you doing this.'

'She called me a demeaning name that was _unprovoked._'

'Unprovoked my arse!' I shouted, pushing against the guardians.

'Rose, what are you doing?' A voice exclaimed and I noticed Alex and Dimitri (!) had come out of Alex's room and rushed towards the scene, Alex pulled me towards him and started walking us back towards the door. 'I don't know what the hell's happened, Rose, but you need to calm down before you do something you regret.'

'Do you need help, Ibanescu?' Dimitri muttered, his voice washing over the both of us, I glared at him and I was a little surprised to notice that Alex was glaring at him as well. Did I miss something?

'No, I think I understand how Rose works, thanks, I do know her better than you after all.' Alex pulled me towards our room and I looked over my shoulder to five people down the corridor, one of which, Christian, was the only one not glaring at our retreating forms.

_What a night. _

**DPOV (Dimitri's POV, this isn't Rose's anymore, we're switching! D.P.O.V!)**

Wherever a moroi was, their charges were never far behind. I had lent my room to Princess Dragomir so she could talk with Rose in privacy and I knew that the room was fully secure, since it was well, my room and I knew it inside out. Rose didn't know it yet, but she was staying in the room next to mine, and however difficult I found the situation, she was sharing with Ibanescu. Who could really do with a punch to the gut, or maybe to the face, I wonder how he'd look with a nice black eye on that pretty little face of his. I was smiling to myself as I imagined how I would feel doing that when there was a knock on the door. Knowing who it was, I jumped straight up to open it, leading the princess inside. Rose stood hesitantly in the doorway, looking into my room and surveying it with her brown eyes. I knew that if we were still on the same terms she would have walked straight into the room, flopped onto my bed and teased me about the Western sitting on my bedside table and the rest of them neatly lined in alphabetical order on my bookshelf. I sighed and looked at her with sad eyes, gesturing for her to follow the princess. She did so and I smiled at her slightly while she acknowledged me with a nod of her perfect head. As she walked past I could smell her natural perfume mixed with some kind of store bought scent, and I'm not going to lie, it made my mouth water a little. But I stopped as soon as I saw her hair and thought about how she must have done it in spite of me and my love for her beautiful chocolate locks. As soon as we're on good enough terms, I'm going to ask her to leave her hair alone, god knows all that blonde dye must be murdering it. I also noticed she had feathers in her hair… perhaps her and Ibanescu were-

'Dimitri, you can go now, I'm sure we'll be perfectly fine in here, we do have Guardian Vespa stood outside along with Guardian Kapowski (*****) and I'm sure Christian will come running if anything goes wrong.'

'Right you are, Princess, be sure to alert me if anything happens.' I turned and walked out of the room, leaving Rose and the princess stood staring at each other and I briefly wondered who would make the first move. But while they were doing that, I was going to pay a little visit to Alexandru.

I reached up and knocked on the door in front of me, hearing a muttered cuss word behind the door before it opened and Alex stood there, at least three inches shorter than me but still with an imposing presence since I knew he could kick my arse if he wanted to and he wouldn't even bat an eye whilst doing it. I really need to ask Rose if she'll let me train with them, surely after other people see what they're capable of, I will not be guarding Vasilisa anymore as she has to have the best protection. Which is what I used to be.

'Belikov, what brings you to mine and Rose's humble abode?' I rolled my eyes upon hearing his words.

'I'm here to speak to you, can I come in?' He nodded his consent and allowed me to walk past him and into the room, I immediately knew which bed Rose was to be sleeping on, and not because her things were there (although that was a big give away) but even though it was quite creepy, I could recognise Rose's scent anywhere. There were also feathers all over.

'There was a loose chicken in here before we got in, probably a prank of some kind… I don't know.' I raised an eyebrow and looked at him intently, shaking my head slightly. 'Wow, not one for jokes, okay…' He gestured for me to sit down on Rose's bed and he sat opposite me on the other, leaning against the wall behind him. 'You wanted to ask me something? Talk?'

'I wanted to talk about the mission you went on…'

'_Yeeeees?_ What about it?' he crossed his arms over his chest and pulled a stray feather from his duvet.

'Okay, it's actually not about the mission. It's about you and Rose.'

'What about Rose and I?' He moved to the edge of the bed with his feet on the floor.

'You seem close, I just wanted to make sure that you knew that you should back off when it comes to Rose.' He countered my words by letting out a booming laugh and shaking his head.

'Dude, I know all about you and Rose and she definitely does not have any of those feelings towards you anymore, I've known her long enough to be certain of that. We're like this, you see.' He held up his right hand with two of his fingers crossed together. I rolled, then narrowed my eyes at his need to talk with his hands.

'Yeah, I don't think she'd have told you everything about our relationship.' I scoffed, shifting on the bed and picking up Rose's stake from the bedside table to examine it, there were patterns all over it, they looked as if they were recent and others looked much older and worn. The patterns were also hand carved and looked as if they stood for something, each tiny lightening bolt around the base of the silver.

'Try me.' He dared.

'Fine, tell me something that only _Roza _and I would know.' I said, turning the stake over and over in my hands, counting the little marks that reminded me so much of _molnija _marks. There were over fifty of them and I wondered whether Rose had done these herself.

'I know that the night before you were turned strigoi, you took Rose's virginity.' His words made it sound as if I stole it from her. 'and I know that you sent her threatening letters all throughout your period as a strigoi and I also know that when you held her captive in Novosibirsk you used her as your personal blood whore. Oh and there was also that time that you-'

'Alright! So you know a couple of things but I still want you to back off from Rose. She's mine, I know her inside and out and you'll never be able to effect her as much as I have.' I was getting possessive, I know, but Rose belonged to me once, she told me, so she'll belong to me again. I need her back.

'You know what? Rose belongs to no one and you'll do well to remember that and yeah, I'll never effect her as much as you have but that's a damn good thing, you want to know why? Because around three quarters of how you've effected her has been shitty. You are not good for her, Belikov! I could make Rose's life a damn sight better than you ever could, mainly because I don't come with a load of baggage to drown her in.' He stood and paced in front of me. 'You left her in a bad condition, her self respect was down the plug-hole and she had no concern as to what actually happened to herself when we were out in the field. She'll be better off staying away from you, Belikov and if you ever try and coerce her ever again, you can be sure that you'll have me to deal with.' I stood up facing him, my fists clenched and shaking. Rose had always commented on my control and how I had to fight to keep it, I wasn't really sure this guy deserved my control.

'Are you threatening me, Alexandru?'

'It wasn't a threat, Belikov. It was a promise.' Before I could reply, a raised voice caught both of our attention from outside in the hallway.

'Unprovoked my arse!' It was Rose and she sounded as if she was about to lose it, Alex beat me to the door and we both caught sight of the scene in front of us when we reached the hallway.

Rose stood with a guardian behind and in front of her, she was about ready to throw them off whilst Vasilisa and Christian stood off to the side, Christian looked about as confused as I felt and Vasilisa was smirking towards Rose. Alex rushed into action first.

'Rose, what are you doing?' He pulled Rose out of the grip of the guardians and towards himself as he led her back to their room, I glared at the guardians that had held her and stood between them and Rose. 'I don't know what the hell's happened, Rose, but you need to calm down before you do something you regret.' Alex muttered, his voice holding a slight command, what shocked me was that Rose listened to his command, something she had never done when I told her what to do.

I don't know what I'm going to do about the Rose situation yet but I need to figure out a way to get her trust again, I just hoped that it wasn't too late to rekindle our friendship let alone our relationship.

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><p><strong>Firstly, I'd just like to say that if you're looking for a good story to read check out 'chasingdownadaydream' who's also written some stories for VA, just search for her in the authors section :) <strong>

**Regarding the '*' in the post, yes i did laugh when i wrote Guardian Kapowski's name, only because i got images of a guardian punching a strigoi and muttering 'kapow' every time he did but you don't really want to know that so... :) **

**Right, I am really sorry about how long it has taken me to get this post out and if you want to shout abuse at me you can do so if you want :L **

**Yeah, so thanks for all the lovely reviews that I've been getting and I'm so glad that you're enjoying The Elite! Please keep reviewing and giving me your opinions and predictions, i really love reading them, whether they're good or bad because it still means that my writing has caused someone to react :) As always, if there are any grammatical issues, be sure to tell me and I'll get on that right away. **

**P.S. Can i also say that I re-watched 'A Very Potter Musical/Sequel' this week for the umpteenth time and was in fits of laughter, so check that out on Youtube if you like Harry Potter and you haven't already heard of it :) **

**~ Ellie Hathaway**


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